
s 



J 



\ 




I 



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AN ESSAY 



ON Til E 

LATE INSTITUTION 



OF THE 



FOR COLONIZING 



OF THE 

UNITED STATES. 




WASHINGTON: 

FRINTED BY DAVIS AND FORCE, PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE* 



1820o 



District of Columbia, to wit : 

BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the twenty-first day of October, one 
thousand eight hundred and twenty, and the forty-fifth year of the Indepen* 
dence of the United States of America, Peter Force, of the said District, hath 
deposited in this office, the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as 
proprietor, in the words following, to wit : 

*' An Essay on the late Institution of the American Society for Colonizing 
the Free People of Colour of the United States." 

In conformity to the act of Congress of the United States, entitled " An act 
for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and 
books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein 
mentioned:" And also to the act, entitled "An act supplementary to an act, 
entitled an act, for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of 
maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during 
the times therein mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of 
designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints." 

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed my 
Cl, S.] seal of office, the day and year above wrkten. 

EDMUND I. LEE, 
Clerk of the District of Columbia. 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



TO THE READER. 

The following essay was written in the year 1817, within 
a month or two after the original formation of the Coloni- 
zation Society at Washington. Particular circumstanceSj 
which are unnecessary to be here mentioned, precluded the 
author from the publication of it, until the present time. 
He supposes, however, that no very material incidents have 
occurred in the interval, which can invalidate either the 
force or the utility of the remarks therein contained. The 
favourable intelligence brought by Mr. Burgess, one of the 
missionaries of the society, indicating a disposition in the 
English African Institution, to afford their friendly aid in 
promoting the views of the American Colonization Society, 
is highly encouraging, and, it is hoped, will induce the phi- 
lanthropic members of the society not to relax their exer- 
tions in such a truly patriotic cause. The reception of the 
missionaries at Sierra Leone, and the ocular information, 
there acquired by them, of the prosperous situation of that 
colony, affords additional encouragement also to those exer« 
tions. It is to be regretted, however, that the " Report of 
the Board of Managers" of the society, in January last, leaves 
the question doubtful and uncertain, whether they propose 
to plant a new colony of their own in some distinct part of 
the African coast, or to engraft their colonization on that of 
Sierra Leone, The latter, certainly, would be far the most 
desirable, could the consent of the English government and 
the African Institution be obtained for that purpose ; as it 
would assuredly promise greater security and permanence 
to those beneficial results hoped for from the laudable exer- 
tions of the society. But, if this consent cannot be obtained, 
the flattering intelligence, received by the missionary, seems 
sufficient to warrant the attempt to establish a distinct and 
independent colony of our own ; relying on the disposition 
" of the benevolent men in England, and, it is hoped, of all 
Europe," that such a colony, planted from such motives, 
will remain as a sanctuary inviolate and undisturbed. But 
it is not enough, that such laudable intentions, on which not 



4 



only the future happiness, but the very being and existence 
of one half of the States of the Union, and consequently of 
that Union itself, depend, should be left to the feeble exer- 
tions of a few private individuals of a humane society. It is 
the imperative duty of the Congress of the United States to 
take up the subject ; and, in virtue of their powers " to pro- 
vide for the general welfare," make such legislative arrange- 
ments as shall be effectual for the purpose. 

Maryland., May I6th : 1319, 



AN ESSAY, &c. 



NO event has occurred, since the United Slates declared 
t hemselves independent, (the formation of their present Con- 
stitution of confederation, perhaps, excepted.) which is 
fraught with more important consequences than the insti- 
tution of the " Society" lately formed at the City of Wash- 
ington, for the colonization of the free " people of colour 
comprehending therein, as we may suppose, the free negroes 
as well as the mulattoes of these United Slates,* It is a 
subject which the author of this Essay has so often revolved 
in his own mind, since the settlement of the Sierra Leone 
colony in the year 1791, that he had almost persuaded him- 
self, at different times, to hazard the publication of a similar 
proposal. But, reflecting at once, that he was but an ob- 
scure individual, possessed of neither power nor influence 
adequate in the smallest degree to the promotion of such a 
scheme, his sanguine enthusiasm on the subject was checked, 
and he could only make the measure a frequent topic of his 
conversations with his friends and acquaintances. Now, 
however, since the proposal has been ushered to the world, 
under the influential authority or recommendation of men, 
whose names and characters are so well known throughout 
the continent, it is hoped, that the author of this publication 
will be excused for presuming to throw in his humble as- 
sistance in promoting so laudable, so benevolent, and so 
patriotic a purpose. 

The subject seems to divide itself into three general heads 
for consideration : 

First, As to the justice and rectitude of the measure ; — ■ 
Secondly, As to its policy, and even necessity ; And — 
Thirdly, As to the expediency, or practicability of it. 

* There is considerable inaccuracy in the denomination given by the above- 
mentioned " Society," to themselves. The expression, "people of colour," 
has been adopted in these States from a similar expression, peuples de coleur, 
or more commonly gens de coleur, heretofore used by the French inhabitants 
of St. Domingo, when speaking of the free mulattoes. Under these expressions 
they never meant to comprehend negroes, either free or slaves. (As an au- 
thority for this, see Edicards^s History of St. Domingo, in the fourth volume of 
his History of the West-Indies.) But it must be supposed, that the intention 
of our "Society" was to comprehend the free negroes, as well as free mulat- 
toes. The denomination is, therefore, more confined than the evident purposes 
of the Society. The expression, people of colour, if intended to comprehend 
free negroes, is incorrect also on philosophical principles. White and black, 
according to opticians, are not colours. They are not classed among, or do 
not form any one of the seven primitive colours ascertained by a prism; the 
former (white) arising from a total reflection, and the latter (black) from a 
total absorption, of all the primitive colours carefully intermixed, 



iO 



SECT. 1. 

As to the justice and rectitude of the measure. 

In considering this part of the subject, the first ideas that 
present themselves to the mind are two questions. 

Are these people, usually termed Negroes, of the same 
genus or species with the rest of mankind, and particularly 
with the white inhabitants of the United States ? 

If they are not of the same species with the whites, though 
of the same genus of animals, called Man, would it be right 
and proper, or would it be doing them any injustice, to take 
all lawful means to prevent an amalgamation or intermixture 
of these two species of mankind ? 

Let us indulge ourselves in a short discussion of the first 
of these questions. Much ingenious disquisition has been 
exercised by learned men, in America as well as in Europe, 
in those natural causes of variety of colour, as well as other 
specific distinctions, which are discernible in the superficial 
appearances of the different races of mankind. Some of these 
literati have been tremblingly alive, lest a favourite system, 
derived from the remotest antiquity, should, in the investi- 
gation of this analysis of human nature, receive a shock, that 
might tumble it into ruins. It would be a death-blow to 
their system, as they suppose, should presumptuous natu- 
ralists or philosophers succeed in the establishment of the 
position, that the race of man could not possibly originate 
from one common parentage ; but that, like other animals of 
the creation, they were willed into existence by the great 
Creator of all things, with all those generic and specific qua- 
lities, which were originally impressed upon them by the 
hand of the Creator, in whatever part of the globe they were 
placed. A daring philosopher might possibly ask — why 
should there not -be as many varieties in that sort of animal 
called Man, as there are evidently in the canine species ? 
Can any one assent with plausible propriety that the bull- 
dog and the grey-hound are descended from one common 
parentage 1 Although nature has not forbid their promis- 
cuous propagation, yet she has evidently drawn a line dis- 
tinctly marking those different species of the same genus, or 
these different varieties of the same species, with an evident 
intention, that their races should be kept distinct, in order 
that the utilities of the natural qualities of each should be 
retained for the purposes for which they were designed. 
Analogy thus points out strong and forcible reasons to sup- 
port the supposition, that the various races of mankind were 



i 1 



originally, in their primitive creation, thus distinctly marked 
as we now see them, and placed by the hand of their Cre- 
ator in those particular regions and climates of the earth, 
where, for the most part, they now inhabit ; possibly, indeed, 
in his all-seeing wisdom, designedly invested with those pe- 
culiar qualities which are -best adapted to those regions and 
climates in which he thus originally placed them.* But, in 
destruction of all this reasoning, we are told of an irresist- 
ible tradition of a deluge ; and that Noah and his family 
were the only human inhabitants of the earth preserved in 
a miraculous manner from that inundation by embarking in a 
floating ark; that Noah, after being thus miraculously pre- 
served with his family, planted the earth with a vineyard, 
made good wine, got drunk upon it, stripped himself naked, 
fell asleep, and in that condition happened to be seen by 
his son Ham — who, calling his two brothers to come and look 
at their father in this shameful condition, was, by Noah, when 
he awoke and became informed of the transaction, cursed in 
his posterity ; and that the Negroes of Africa, who were 
Ham's posterity, became black through the influence of that 
curse ; and moreover, that the denunciation then pronounced 
by Noah against Canaan, Ham's son, " a servant of servants 
should he be unto his brethren," authorizes the people of 
America, to make slaves of the Negroes. 

Setting aside the impiety in making the Supreme Being 
the author of an act of such outrageous injustice, as to punish 
an innocent son for the transgression of his father, it hap- 
pens, that the interpretation of this passage in the scriptures 
is, by the best historians and expositors, deemed to be erro- 
neous ; for neither Canaan, upon whom the curse was pro- 
nounced, nor any of his descendants ever settled in Africa, 
except perhaps, some Phenicians, who are said to have mi- 
grated, some ages afterwards, into those northern parts of 
Africa, now comprehended under the denomination of Bar- 
bary. That part of the world which fell to Canaan's lot, 
and became settled by his posterity, was that well known 
land of Canaan, " flowing with milk and honey," which so 
much attracted the merciless Israelites as to induce them to 
extirpate the Canaanites, in order to get possession of their 
country, subsequently denominated Judea ; somewhat in the 
same manner as the people of God in America are now ex- 
tirpating the Creeks and Cherokees, that they may possess 
their fertile territories. 

Noah's curse, then, was not the cause of the colour of the 
Negroes ; nor does it appear that the origin of the black 



* See the Appendix, Note I. 



race of mankind in the interior and southern parts of Africa 
can be clearly traced, by the authority of the Scriptures, ta- 
ttle descendants of Ham. One of the accounts, derived 
from that source, is, that they are descended from another 
son of Hani's called Phut, who is said to have settled in 
Mauritania, which comprehended the country now compos- 
ing the kingdoms of Morocco, Fez, and Algiers. But it does 
not appear from the scriptures, that Phut was a black man. 
or that he was at all comprehended in the curse pronounced 
upon Canaan. He must have been, as we may suppose, of 
the same colour as that of his father Ham, who was probably 
of the same colour of that of his brothers Shem andJaphet; 
the latter of whom has the honour, as is alleged, of being 
the progenitor of us Anglo-Americans, and therefore, in all 
probaoility was a white man. Besides, there are strong geo- 
graphical reasons, why, supposing Phut to have settled in 
Mauritania, and that his posterity constituted or laid the 
foundation of the present race of Moors, yet that they could 
not, in all probability, have migrated from thence into the 
interior parts of Africa, so as to have produced the present 
race of Negroes. It seems to be well ascertained by ge- 
ographers, that along all that tract of tolerably fertile coun- 
try in Africa, bordering on the Mediterranean, and now pos- 
sessed by what are called the Barbary States, there runs a 
chain of mountains called Atlas, parallel with the Mediter- 
ranean, and extending from the Atlantic Ocean to the desert 
of Barca, which separates Tripoli from Egypt. Beyond this 
chain of mountains, or rather on the south side thereof, lies 
another tract of country, parallel to the same, extremely 
barren and yielding no other food for the existence of man 
than a few scattered date-trees. Passing this tract, there 
runs again an immense desert of sand, parallel with the for- 
mer and of equal extent from west to east, that is, from the 
Atlantic Ocean to the confines of Nubia and Egypt, stated to 
be about a thousand miles in breadth from north to south, 
and on the north penetrable only by caravans carrying with 
them water and other necessaries of life for a journey of 
two months, before they can reach the habitable interior 
parts of Africa now possessed by the Negroes.* Now, these 
circumstances seem to present insurmountable difficulties to 
a supposition of the propagation of mankind in that direc- 
tion. 

But, if we adopt the conjecture of a learned modern tra- 
veller, (whoever he was,t) who has published his Travels 

* See the map of the northern parts of Africa inserted in "Ali Bey's Tra- 
vels," improved from Major RennelVs map of the same. 

t " The Travels of Ali Bey 1 ' are said to have been performed by a Spaniard 
of the name oiBadia, who adopted an Arabic character and name, probably 



13 



into the northern part of Africa, under the Arabic denomi- 
nation of 44 Ah Bey," we shall be convinced at once of an 
obvious impossibility, that the Negroes could ever have de- 
rived their origin from the primitive inhabitants of those 
northern parts of Africa, now denominated the Barbary 
States. This ingenious traveller is of opinion, that the 
country bordering on the Mediterranean, now constituting 
these States, was originally an island, and that it was most 
probably the island called by the ancients, Atlantis ; that the 
immense sandy desert, now called Sahhara, near a thousand 
miles broad, which separates these states from Nigritia or 
the country of the Negroes, was originally covered by the 
sea and formed a part of the Atlantic Ocean ; that the ridge 
of mountains called Atlas, extending as they now do from 
the shores of the Atlantic to the desert of Barca, which se- 
parate Tripoli from Egypt, formed what might be called the 
southern shores of this island. If this conjecture of this 
learned man be founded in truth, and he seems to support it 
with apparently unanswerable arguments, all hope of de- 
ducing the descent of the Negroes through any of the primi- 
tive inhabitants of this island must be at an end. 

Driven front this entrance into Africa, the admirers of the 
ancient system of one common parentage seek to shove the 
descendants of Ham into that quarter of the world through 
another avenue. They suppose, (for, it is all supposition 
only,) that the Negroes must have derived their origin from 
one of the two other sons of Ham, to wit, Chus or Misraim* 
But from the best expositors it appears, that Chus and his 
posterity settled, not only in Arabia, but also in that country 
in Persia, called from him Chusestan. Misraim seems to 
have been considered as the progenitor of the Egyptians and 
Abyssinians, who are said by some to be the Ludim and 
Anamim of Moses ; but by others the Ludim and Anamim, 
(the descendants of Misraim,) settled further in the interior 
parts of Africa and a little to the westward of Egypt ; from 
whom, if from any of Noah's descendants, the most plausible 
origin of the Negroes is to be traced. But it is all mere 
conjecture only ; for the scriptures are silent upon the sub- 
ject ; and although it appears to have been possible, that 
these Ludim and Anamim might have extended their gene- 
rations from their first settlements bordering on Egypt into 
the more interior parts of Africa, yet such a bare possibility 
is not sufficient to bear down before it the apparently insur- 

for the purpose of travelling with more facility through the eastern countries, 
between the years 1803 and 1807. A translation of these Travels has been 
lately published in London and in Philadelphia. 



J 4 



mountable barriers which the laws of nature have raised 
against this hypothesis. The distinguishing phenomena of 
colour, wool, odour, and form of the Negroes, are such evi- 
dent marks of a distinct species of the human animal, as to 
require strong credulity in supposing them to be descended 
from the same common parentage as either the Egyptians or 
or Abyssinians ; who are generally represented by travellers 
as being of a swarthy colour with long hair, and in every 
respect evidently of a distinct race from the Negroes. 

But we are exultingly asked — how will you reconcile the 
preservation of mankind from the deluge, of which every 
part of the earth bears evident marks, unless by the sup- 
position of a common origin ? To this it might be answered 
as has been by some very learned men, that Noah's flood 
was not to be considered as general or universal over the 
whole earth, but topical only, and confined to Judea and the 
regions thereabout, or perhaps to that tract of land which 
lies between the four seas, the Persian, Caspian, Euxine and 
Mediterranean, or at most that it reached no further than the 
continent of Asia, and that such partial inundations might, in 
the lapse of ages, have successively effected all parts of the 
earth. One author, indeed, has gone so farcin his suppo- 
sition, that all mankind did not perish in the deluge, as to eti* 
deavour to prove by an exposition of the curse upon Cain, 
" a fugitive and a vagabond shaltthou be in the earth that 
his posterity must have wandered so far from the site of the 
ark as not to have been saved by it, and that the Africans, 
(the Negroes, we may suppose,) were of Cain's posterity un- 
affected by the deluge. Be all this as it may, the insur- 
mountable difficulties attending the supposition, according to 
human reason, of a sufficiency of water attached to this 
earth to cover the surface thereof to the tops of the " highest 
hills," and above all, of the capacity of an ark to contain 
the pairs and sevens of every different species of the animal 
creation, as well as the utter impossibility of collecting or 
driving them into such a vessel, must create in every mind 
strong doubts of the universality of the deluge. 

Let us now advert to the consideration of the supposed 
effects of climate. As before observed, much ingenious dis- 
quisition has been written to prove, that those marked dif- 
ferences, which we perceive in the various races of mankind 1 
might have been produced by the influence of the different 
climates of the earth, notwithstanding their races were ori- 
ginally of the same colour, derived from their common pa- 
entage immediately after the deluge ; that a moist northern 
climate would produce zvhiteness, and the scorching heat of 



15 



the torrid zone, blackness; and hence their colours have 
varied into two extremes. 

Lest it might be supposed by misinformed readers, that I 
have the vanity here of attempting to set forth a singular 
opinion, hitherto unauthorized by literary men, 1 shall, by 
way of introduction to my remarks on this subject, copy the 
analysis of that genus of animals called Man, as laid down 
by Buffon, confessedly the best informed naturalist, whose 
works have yet appeared in the world. He has distinguished 
the men of the old continent, that is, of the three quarters 
of the world, called Europe, Asia, and Africa into five races ; 
as follows : 

" 1. The Laplanders, Danish, Swedish, and Russian ; the inhabi- 
tants of Greenland, Kamtschatka, and the Samoied Tartars, from 
latitude sixty degrees north to the pole ; their colour, deep brown, 
almost black ; shape, short, large head, flat nose, hollow small eyes, 
high cheek bones, wide mouth, thick lips. 

"2. The Tartars from latitude fifty to sixty. To this race is 
joined the Chinese and Japanese. Their colour olive, tawny, 
white ; shape, middle size, broad face, flat nose, small eyes, high 
cheek bones, narrow chin, black hair, large thighs, little beard. 

" 3. The inhabitants of Europe, Georgia, Circassia, Asia Minor, 
and the northern parts of Africa, to the northward of fifty degrees. 
Their colour, white; shape, middle size, rather tall ; eyes blue, 
hazel or black ; hair flaxen, brown, red, black. 

"4. The southern Asiatics inhabiting the peninsula of India and 
its islands ; to which belong the Persians and Arabians. Their 
colour olive, black ; shape slender, well formed ; Roman nose. 

" 5. The inhabitants of the southern parts of Africa, extending 
from latititude eighteen north to eighteen south, except the Abys- 
sinians. Their colour black; shape middle size ; flat nose, thick 
lips, woolly hair."* 

The fair inference to be drawn from this arrangement of 
the different races of mankind, in what may be called the 
Old World, is, that this great philosopher and naturalist was 
clearly of opinion, that these distinct races of mankind ne- 
cessarily implied as many distinct origins or common parent- 
ages. Else, why speak of them as different races ? Having 
affixed to each race peculiar characteristics, whereby they 
may be distinguished from others, without referring those 
characteristics in the slightest manner to the effects of cli- 
mate, he must have meant them as founded in nature, in 
their internal and superficial organization ; the mechanism of 
their Creator, transmitted from generation to generation in 

* Not having the original of Buffon's works to resort to, I have here co- 
pied what is above from Mr. Williamson's " Observatians on the Climate of 
America," pa. 33, supposing that he has correctly translated, or copied from 
some English translation, the above passage frcra Bv forts works. 



16 



each distinct race, through every age and every clime, ex- 
cept where those races have been adulterated by inter- 
mixture. In some proof of this it may be observed, that 
he states, in the first race, the inhabitants " from latitude 
sixty degrees north to the pole" to be in " their colour deep 
brozcn, almost black." If this be the case, it would seem at 
once to destroy all supposition, that Negroes owe their black 
skin and crisped locks to the heat of the climate they inhabit ; 
for, amidst the eternal frosts of Greenland and Kamtschatka 
the inhabitants are e< almost black." 

The earliest writers of any note, within my knowledge, 
who has attempted to refer the cause of the black colour of 
the Negroes to the influence of climate, is a Doctor John 
Mitchel, a resident physician of Virginia, in the early part of 
the eighteenth century, though a native of England. He 
appears to have been a man of considerable literary acquire- 
ments. As a large portion of the population of Virginia, even 
at that time, consisted of Negroes, he was thereby led to an in- 
vestigation of the causes of their colour, as well as some other 
peculiarities attending them. Having reduced the result 
of his inquiries on the subject into the form of an Essay, he 
transmitted it to the Royal Society of London, (of which he 
was a member,) in the year 1744, where it was read several 
times, and from that circumstance appears to have been 
much approved.* In the course of his Essay, he endeavours 
to maintain the following propositions : " That the colour of 
the white people proceeds from the colour which the Epi- 
dermis transmits, that is, from the colour of the parts under 
the epidermis, rather than from any colour of its own.t 
That both the cutis and the epidermis of Negroes are of a 
thicker substance and denser texture than those of white peo- 
ple, and transmit no colour through them. They are, conse- 
quently, black. That this thickness and denseness of the 
skin is the effect of the sun in hot countries." " Climate is, 
therefore, the remote and principal cause of the colour of 
Negroes." 

Having clearly demonstrated these several propositions, as 
lie supposes, he proceeds to deduce from them several dis- 
tinct " corollaries :" among which the following one, from 
its singularity, seems most worthy of notice. 

* The reader may find it in the 43d vol. of the Philosoph. Transactions, 
at large, and in the 10th vol. of the Phil Transact. Abridged, pa. 926. 

+ It may be proper here to observe, that anatomists state, that the flesh of 
the human body has three coverings. The first, or lowermost, which is the 
thickest and next to the flesh, is emphatically called the skin, or cutis; the 
second, which lies upon the cutis, is a thin net-iike covering, called the cor- 
yv* re.Hrulcre, or reticular membrane; and the third is an outer thin pellu- 
cid covering, called the epidermis or scarf-skin. 



11 



Xi From what has been said about the cause of the colour of 
black and white people we may justly conclude, that they might 
very naturally be both descended from one and the same parents* 
as we are otherwise better assured from Scripture, that they 
are ;* which may remove the scruples of some nice philoso- 
phers, who cannot, or will not, believe even the Scriptures., 
unless it be so far as they can be made agreeable to their 
philosophy; for the different colours of people have been 
demonstrated to be only the necessary effects and natural 
consequences of their respective climes and ways of life ; as 
we may further learn from experience, that they are the 
most suitable for the preservation of health, and the ease 
and convenience of mankind in these climes and ways of living ; 
so that the black colour of the negroes of Africa, instead of being 
a curse denounced on them, on account of their forefather Ham, 
as some have idly imagined, is rather a blessing, rendering their 
lives, in that intemperate region, more tolerable, and less painful: 
whereas, on the other hand, the white people, who look on them- 
selves as the primitive race of men, from a certain superiority of 
worth, either supposed or assumed, seem to have the least pre- 
tensions to it of any, either from history or philosophy ; for, they 
seem to have degenerated more from the primitive and original com- 
plexion of mankind, in Noah and his sons, than even the Indians 
and Negroes; and that to the worst extreme, the most delicate, 
tender, and sickly. For, there is no doubt, but that Noah and his 
sons were of a complexion suitable to the climate where they resi- 
ded, as well as the rest of mankind; which is the colour of the south- 
ern Tartars of Asia, or nothern Chinese, at this day perhaps, which is a 
dark swarthy, a medium between black and white ; from which pri- 
mitive colour the Europeans degenerated as much on one hand, as 
the Africans did on the other; the Asiatics (unless, perhaps, where 
intermixed with the whiter Europeans,) with the most of the Amer- 
icans, retaining the primitive and original complexion. The grand 
obstacle to the b elief of this relation between black and white peo* 
pie is, that, on comparing them together, their colours seem to be 
so opposite and contrary, that it seems impossible that one should 
ever have been descended from the other. But besides the falsity 
of this supposed direct contrariety of their colours, they being 
only different, although extreme, degrees of the same sort of colour* 
as we have above proved ; besides this, I say, that it is not a right 
state of the question ; we do not affirm, that either blacks or whites 
were originally descended from one another, but that both were 
descended from people of an intermediate tawny colour ; whose 
posterity became more and more tawny, i. e. black, in the southern 
regions, and less so, or white, in the northern climes : whilst those 
who remained in the middle regions, w r here the first men resided* 
continued of their primitive tawny complexions; which we see 
confirmed by matter of fact, in all the different people in the world,'* 



* Genes, iii. 20. is. 19, 

3 



IS 



We need not indulge in much comment in this place upon 
the extraordinary opinion of this writer, that the ivhites 
" have degenerated more from the original complexion of 
mankind, in Noah and his sons, than even the Indians and 
Negroes ; and that to the worst extreme, the most delicate, 
tender, and sickly except to remark, that this respectable 
author seems to have over-looked, or at least to have been 
insensible to the beautiful moral effect, which the blushes of 
a modest white woman have upon the opposite sex. The 
intermixture of red and white forming the carnation of the 
cheeks, so visible to the eye in corning and retiring as the 
sentiments of the mind ebb and flow, surely gives an excel- 
lence to the whites of which the blacks are destitute. The 
flowing hair too, of the former is so much more susceptible 
of ornament in the changeable variety of fashion, as to af- 
ford to them manifest advantages in the art of pleasing by 
novelty. But, what is of obvious disadvantage to the blacks, 
and what forms an objection to them of great importance 
with the sensualist is their offensive odour ; which not " all 
the perfumes of Arabia" can conquer or subdue. Health, 
certainly, is essential to beauty, and " sickliness" a defect; 
but in their appropriate climates the whites seem not to be 
inferior in this respect to the blacks. 

Let us pass to another American writer on this subject. 
Mr. Williamson, of North-Carolina, has recently published a 
volume, entitled " Observations on the Climate in different 
parts of America."* This respectable author, (for such he 
certainly is, possessing more than ordinary talents for inves- 
tigation.) sets out, in that part of his investigation where he 
combats Bufforis idea of several races of men, as before 
stated, in laying down the following general proposition — 
" that any two animals who can procreate together, and 
whose issue may continue to procreate, are of the same spe- 
cies." Before any application of this proposition to the 
present subject can be admitted, it would be necessary to 
settle the meaning here affixed to the word species. Natu- 
ralists use the terms, classes, orders, genera, species, and 
varieties, occasionally, when treating of the animal as well as 
vegetable kingdoms ; and this too, in an arbitrary manner, so 

* A writer, previous to Mr. Williamson, of the name of Smith, (as well as I 
can remember, the Rev. Samuel S. Smith, who was President of a College in 
Virginia, and subsequently of that of Ne k- Jersey,) wrote a book or pam- 
phlet on the causes of the colour of Negroes, in which, as it is said, he has 
assigned the same causes as Dr. Mitchell. Having no opportunity to inspect 
his work, I may here suppose that he has presented but little more eluci- 
dation on the subject than what Dr. Mitchell had before him, and Mr. Wil- 
liamson has since. 



19 



as to suit the divisions of the subject on which they treat. 
" The word species, is a mere term of the relation : And the 
same idea may be a species, when compared to another gene- 
ral one ; and a genus with regard to a more particular one."* 
Thus, animal is a genus of created beings, and quadruped is 
a species ; again, quadruped is a genus, and dog a species 
thereof ; and again, dog is a genus, and the bull-dog and the 
grey-hound two distinct species thereof. So, by analogy, 
animal is a genus, and man a distinct species ; again, man is 
a genus, and the zohite man and the Negro two distinct spe- 
cies thereof. The abovementioned rule of philosophizing, 
therefore, can be but of little use on the present occasion ; 
for white men and negro women, and vice versa, may " pro- 
create together," and their " issue may continue to procre- 
ate," yet they need not necessarily be " of the same spe- 
cies," any more than the canine animals just mentioned. 
Some naturalists have probably derived this rule, just quoted, 
from what is observed of those distinct genera of animals, 
the horse and the ass ; which, although they may procreate 
together, yet their issue, the mule, will not continue to do 
so ; and Providence may have so willed it for the purpose 
of preserving the different classes, orders, genera, and spe- 
cies of animals distinct.! An opinion, however, has been 
set forth, which if true, would ruin this supposition, that 
nature refuses procreation to animals of different species. It 
has been alleged that the Negro is the offspring of a white 
man with the Ourang Outang of Africa. J But the other 
opinion just referred to below, that there are gradations in 
the scale of human existence, as well as there is evidently 
in that of other animals, seems to be a position much more 
tenable. Indeed, throughout the whole of animated na- 
ture there seems to be some one link of existence connecting 

* Barron's Univ. Diet. verb. Species ; see also Johnson's Diet. verb, genus 
and species. 

tit was upon this presumption, most probably, that Mr. Charles White, 
of Manchester, England, in his treatise entitled " Gradations in Man," 
among other arguments to prove, "that the black man of Africa is of a 
different species from the white man of Europe," states, that " mulattoes 
are mules. They are not prolific." It is probable that he is under a mis- 
take in this supposition. It has been alleged, however, by some writers, 
that in the West-Indies, the mulatto women are not so prolific as the blacks; 
but this may be owing to their being more indiscriminately used, which will 
have that effect with white women. 

X This opinion is quoted in a late American work, entitled, " A View of 
Ancient Geogrophy," by Robert Mayo, M, D. in the original French, without 
mentioning the name of the author. "Quant a moi,?' says this French wri- 
ter, "je suis et serai toujours persuade que les Negros n'ont ete produite que 
par cause indignee ci-dessus ; c' est a dire, par le melange de notre saug aveo 
celui de l'ourang-outang." 



20 



the different classes and orders together in one continue!! 
chain. Thus the humming bird seems to be a link between 
the bird and the insect ; the eel between the fish and the 
reptile ; the hippopotamus between the fish and the quadru- 
ped ; and thus the monkey or baboon between the human 
and brute creation : and so of many other species of ani- 
mals, which might obviously be named. This idea seems tjcr 
be pursued by one of the best of the English poets : 

" Superior beings when " late they saw, 
A mortal man unfold all nature's law, 
Admired such wisdom in an earthly shape* 
And showed a Newton as we show an ape. 11 

On the supposition, that angels exist in the human Fon»J 
though not of material yet of spiritual substance, possibly 
"with the addition of wings, as religious imagination is fond 
of pou rt raying them, there seems to be no absurdity in tra- 
cing the " gradations of man" from the angel to the monkey.. 
We have the scriptures for our authority, that men were 
created but a little lower than angels. The first step in 
this gradation, therefore, next to the angel, would, without 
doubt, be a beautiful white woman ; such as an accomplished 
belle of either Paris or London, or, if you please, of some 
of our northern cities of America ; where they can boast of 
the alabaster neck, the ruby lip, and the roseate cheek. 
The next would be the Tartar and Chinese, with her tawny 
and cadaverous skin, her broad face, her high cheek bones, 
her fiat nose, and her little eyes. The next would be the 
Southern Asiatic, far superior to the Tartar in the form of 
her person, delicate and slender ; but unfortunately with a 
black unblushing face. Then would come the " Sable Ve- 
nus,"* as some would have it, closing the procession of hu- 
man beauty, with her ebony skin, woolly hair, her thick lips, 
her flat nose, her flat foot, and her gibbous shins ; throwing 
around her an atmosphere of peculiar odour. Is the gra- 
duated scale here broke off? Alas! there are too many 
little features of likenesses to u the human face divine" in 
the description of the ourang-outang, and even in the ba- 
boon and the monkey. They must, therefore, follow in the 
rear of the foregoing train. Are the advocates for emanci- 
pation, at all events, prepared to admit the propriety of 
uniting the extremes of these evidently distinct orders of 
human beauty, of "amalgamating" the black with the white- — 

*See an "Ode to the Sable Venus," inserted in Mr. Edwards's History of 
the West-Indie'Si 



?1 



in short, of introducing confusion into that regular gradation 
of human existence so plainly delineated by the hand of the 
Creator ? 

But these distinctive marks of shape and colour do not 
indicate, it is said, a real difference of species, because they 
arise from accident alcauses, such as climate and habits of life, 
" This argument from shape and colour," says our American 
writer last mentioned, " would be weak and futile if it was 
applied to vegetables, or to animals of any other kind." It 
is true, that with regard to vegetables or plants, the sexual 
system has been adopted into general use on the authority 
of the celebrated Linnaeus, in preference to the more ancient 
system of shape and colour. But whoever has a little learn- 
ing in botany, knows, that, although the Linnaean system 
classes plants according to the number of their stamina and 
styles, yet in the description of a plant, pointing out the cha- 
racteristics whereby it may be known, not only the shape of 
its root whether fibrous or bulbous, of its stalk whether erect 
or procumbent, of its leaves whether oval or round, serrated, 
or indented, but even the colour of its corolla, are all par- 
ticularly described in order to distinguish the genus, species, 
or variety to which the plant belongs. Although, therefore, 
the ranunclus, the tulip, the auricola, and clianthus may ac- 
quire various colours by transplantation, yet nature has 
written her characteristics upon these plants too legible for 
the botanist to mistake them, and the variegated colouring 
on the petals of their flowers might have been originally so 
intended by the Creator. Man, however, according to his 
several and respective species, in every climate, is of an 
uniform colour, whatever it may be. Albinos, or spotted 
negroes have been sometimes mentioned and described ; 
but it is agreed by all scientific men, that this appearance in 
such negroes is a disease, to which they are sometimes 
liable. Neither do " the changes that quadrupeds sustain 
by heat, cold, soil, climate, and food," present analogous 
proof, that these causes would effectuate the wide difference 
between the white European and the Negro. One of the 
instances, brought to illustrate this position, seems to be pe- 
culiarly unfortunate, and requires to be mentioned. In 
temperate climates, says our American author, as well as 
others before him, " sheep have fine wool — in hot climates 
they have hair instead of wool." Now, if a hot climate has 
the effect of changing wool into hair on one animal, is it not; 
fair to demand a reason, why the same cause should not 
operate the same effect in another animal ? The hair of 
Negroes in a hot climate is said to be thereby changed into 



22 



wool ; but the wool of sheep is thereby changed into hair. 
Has this difference in the effect from the same cause ever 
been satisfactorily explained ? None of the advocates for 
the effects of climate in changing the colours of men, have 
ever, to my knowledge, undertaken to account for this. Un- 
til they do, it follows, that it must be considered as one of 
the most invariable and indelible distinctions of a different 
species of the race of man. 

Nor can it be observed, that this peculiar distinction in 
the hair or colour of the Negro, even under the lapse of cen- 
turies, exhibits the slightest changes from the effects of cli- 
mate. Nature generally works in an uniform manner — the 
same causes generally producing the same effects. If then, 
a hot climate could, in the lapse of two thousand five hundred 
years, turn Ham's descendants black, and alter their hair 
from a smooth straightness to a rough crispness, the same 
cause reversed, that is, a cold climate would, as we natu- 
rally suppose, in the same space of time, restore those des- 
cendants to their primitive colour, and their hair to its ori- 
ginal straitness. Again, we are to suppose, that this alter- 
ation of their hair and colour was not sudden, but gradual : 
and in like manner, on a change of climate, that the return 
of their hair and colour to its primitive state would also be 
gradual. Now, it is very certain, that Negroes have been in 
Virginia and Maryland about one hundred and eighty years, 
and nearly as long in some of the older New-England States, 
that is, about one fourteenth part of the time beforemen- 
tioned requisite to turn them black. But has it ever yet 
been remarked, that the slightest variation, among those of 
the genuine breed, either as to colour or hair, from those 
immediately from Africa, could possibly be perceived ? To 
prove that the colour of their skin or the state of their hair 
is owing to climate, they ought now to have faded from their 
original blackness one fourteenth part, that is, they ought to 
have become so much lighter coloured, and their hair so 
much straiter.* It is stated, indeed, by our American wri- 
ter last cited, that " the Negroes on Long-Island, in the 
State of New- York, whose ancestors were imported by the 
original Dutch colonists, above one hundred years ago have 
lost their flat nose, their thick lips and arched shins but he 
does not venture to state that they have lost their black skin 
and frizzled wool. Indeed, in another part of his work, he 
candidly confesses, that " the cases are few, if any, in which 
we are credibly informed, that a race of men perfectly black 



* See the AppeDdix, Note II, 



23 



have become white again. But this process," he conceives, 
« would require much longer time than is necessary to effect 
the opposite change." Why so ? it might be asked of him ; 
for he assigns no reason for it. Cessante causa cessat tfftc- 
tus seems to be an established rule of philosophziing. Take 
away the cause, that is, a hot climate, which can be done 
only by removing to a cold one, the erFect, to wit, blackness 
must cease, and the man become fair again. The first be- 
fore-mentioned author has, indeed, as before stated, endea- 
voured to maintain, that neither white nor black was " the 
original complexion of mankind." They must, therefore, 
hav^e been of a light or dark brown, commonly called swar- 
thy. Then, suppose that Noah and his children were of a 
brown complexion. Remove the Negro to a cold climate, 
and he ought in process of time become brown ; for, the ef- 
forts of nature to restore the man to his primitive natural 
colour would be uniform and constant ; and, the accidental 
cause of a hot climate ceasing by his removal, some degree 
of approximation to the primitive colour should immediately 
commence on his removal. So again, remove the white 
man to a hot climate, he ought to be immediately in a state 
of progression towards his primitive brownness. But, al- 
though this last position is asserted to be true, yet it must be 
understood only of the change of the colour of his face and 
hands, upon which the sun or heat acts. The man remains 
as fair as ever under his clothes. It has been asserted, also, 
that Negroes are white when they are born ; but this, cer- 
tainly, is not so, or the fact would be generally known and 
spoken of in the American States. 

The advocates for the doctrine, that climate is the cause 
of blackness in negroes, being aware that their arguments 
would be imperfect, did they prove only, that any one indi- 
vidual man might be turned black by the rays of a hot sun 
in a warm climate, go further and undertake to assert, "that 
the colour (blackness) endued becomes hereditary." This 
position becomes necessary, by their inability to prove, that 
negro children are born white. But the author of the " Ob- 
servations on Climate," before referred to, who thus relates 
this hereditary quality of blackness of the skin, thus acquired 
by the effects of the sun, uses no arguments to prove it ; 
and seems to suppose it to flow, as a kind of corollary from 
the problem, that climate produces blackness ; which, as he 
supposes, he has proved. But it is evident, that climate 
might produce blackness on the skin, as it does on the hands 
and face of every man exposed to a hot air and sun, and yet 
it does not therefore follow, that a man, thus having his skin 



l 2i 



banned or rendered "brown by the sun, should transmit this 
brown colour to his children. We often see the young 
children of swarthy labouring men beautifully fair. The 
operations of the sun and air, in discolouring the skin, are 
external, and act only on the superficies of the human frame ; 
but the hereditary qualities of children, which they derive 
from their parents, (as a brown or fair complexion, for in- 
stance,) are constitutional and engrafted in their internal 
structure. 

Nither does there appear to be much foundation for the 
" observation" of the author, " that certain habits of living 
have similar effects which he exemplifies by the " Jews, 
who, differing from other people in many articles of food, 
often differ in complexion from the nation among whom they 
live." But it seems to be certain, that Jews retain their 
peculiar hereditary swarthiness or brownness of complexion, 
in whatever country and in whatever climate they live : 
which is the more observable, as they are known to be dis- 
persed into almost every country on the surface of the earth. 
They must, in a great degree, conform to the " habits of 
living," particularly in that of food, which happens to be 
prevalent in the country which they inhabit. In London, 
where the inhabitants are supposed to be the fairest of Euro- 
peans, and Jews have lived in times almost beyond the re- 
cords of the history of the English nation, and feed, except 
in the abstinence from pork, much as the other inhabitants 
do, on beef and mutton, they nevertheless retain their ori- 
ginal complexion, which they are reported always to have 
had, and transmit that lucid brownness of skin, for which 
they are remarkable, from generation to generation. But 
more is to be made of this exemplification of the Jews, than 
our author intended. It seems at once to rebut all supposi- 
tion, that climate will alter the colour of the skin, so as that- 
such colour shall become hereditary ; for then, the Jews 
ought to vary in the colour of their skin and complexion, 
according to the variety of climates, which they inhabit. 
This our author contends to be the case. But certainly 
general report concerning them is otherwise. As conclusive 
proof on this subject, he adduces what he calls " a remakable 
discovery lately made in the East-Indies," in the year 1806, 
on the Malabar coast, " of many synagogues of Jews. Some 
of these Israelites or Jews are white ; others of them are 
black. The white Jews live near the coast. The black 
Jews live at some distance from the coast ; near the moun- 
tains or among them. The white Jews are counted enemies 
to the black Jews. It is established by tradition and by the 



25 



concurring evidence of authentic records, that the black 
Jews had settled in India long before the christian aera. it 
is also admitted, that they settled there before the white 
Jews ; and the station they occupy, is a sufficient evidence 
of the fact. The white Jews have no ancient historical 
records nor manuscripts among them ; but the biack Jews 
have copies of the law in their record chests." With this 
account of these Jews, somewhat more at large, but substan- 
tially as just stated, he thus closes this branch of his subject, 
with the following corollary. " It is fully established, that 
bv living in India, two thousand years or more, near the 
tenth decree of latitude, a detachment from a white nation 
are become black. If this shall not be taken for a proof, 
that climate blackens the skin, all reasoning on the subject 
is useless." 

This respectable author, in the outset of this his statement 
of the preceding facts, has delivered some symptoms of a 
deficiency of information in relation to these synagogues of 
Jews in India. Neither Dr. Buchanan nor Dr. Kerr were 
the first discoverers of these Jews on the Malabar coast, in 
the year 1806, as he states. They must have been known 
to the Portuguese, the first European discoverers of that 
coast ; but most certainly to the Dutch, who conquered the 
fort of the Malabar coast from the Portuguese, where these 
Jews are said to have so long dwelt, about the year 1662. 
Within a few years after this conquest by the Dutch, about 
the year 1695, Mynheer Van Reede, a Dutch gentleman, 
published a succinct history of these Jews, translated from 
the Hebrew into low Dutch. They are therein stated to 
have " declared themselves to be of the tribe of Manasseh, 
a part whereof was by Nebuchadnezzar carried to the most 
eastern province of his large empire, which, it seems, reached 
as far as Cape Camorin."* But the history, from whence 
we have made this extract, states nothing relative to any 
ditference of colour among these Jews. Not having Dr. 
Buchannan's ;i Discourses and Researches in x4sia" to examine, 
I have had recourse to some extracts from, and remarks on, 
that work, in a periodical publication, entitled, " The Chris- 
tian Observer," republished in the " Select Reviews" of this 
country for 1812; where the editor of the "'Observer" 
makes this observation : 41 The black Jews appeared to Dr* 
Buchannan to have arrived in India many ages before the 
white Jews ; and so much had they been assimilated be inter- 
marriages to the Hindoos, that it zvas sometimes difficult to 
distinguish them," It may be strongly suspected, that this 

* Ses this more fullr stated in the Mod. Univ. Hist. Vol. x. page 499. 

4 



last-mentioned fact would unravel the whole mystery. So" 
far from the station, which the white Jews occupied on the 
coast, being evidence, that the black Jews, who settled in 
the interior part of the country, arrived first in India, it seems 
to be rather evidence to support a contrary supposition. 
This voyage along the coast from the territories of ancient 
Babylon, down the Persian Gulf and along the coast of the 
peninsula of India, seems quite as probable as their journey 
thither by land. As to " tradition and authentic records," 
proving the priority of the black Jews in their settlement in 
India, they may be very plausibly accounted for somewhat 
in this way. A part of the original Jews, thus migrated into 
India, might have acted so inconsistently with the tenets of 
this sect, as to " intermarry with the black Hindoos.' 3 Ori- 
ginally a swarthy people, they would soon, by their inter- 
marriages, have become black* The principal Jews, resident 
on the coast, who were white, would naturally be displeased 
with their brethren for their conduct. Quarrels among them 
on that account, might probably have ensued* But those 
who had intermarried with the Hindoos and had thus become 
black, would be stronger and more powerful, having the 
native Hindoos to back them. They would, therefore, have 
seized upon the records brought with them from Babylon or 
Palestine, and, availing themselves of this possession of thei 
sacred documents, assumed from this circumstance a superior 
reputation of antiquity. The acknowledgment of these black 
Jews, that " from their vicinity to the white Jews, they had 
been supplied from time to time with the Old Testament," 
(as stated by Dr. Buchannan himself in his letter on the 
subject,) seems strongly to corroborate this supposition. 
But further, if climate has thus operated upon this u detach- 
ment from a white nation," so as to change their colour to 
black, why has it not operated in some degree also upon the 
remainder part of them, who followed the former, as we may 
suppose, in a few centuries afterwards ? In a letter, which the 
Jews of Cochin, (who are the Jews on the coast, and there- 
fore the white Jews,) wrote to the Jews of Amsterdam, they 
State, " that they retired into the Indies, when the Romans 
conquered the Holy Land ; and that they have had seventy- 
two kings, who succeeded each other within the space of a 
thousand years."* Surely, if climate has any power to turn 
a race of people black, it ought, in that period of time, to 
have caused some slight approximation to that colour* But 
the Jews of Cochin, it seems, are still white. 

It is not improbable, that " intermarriages" may also ac-* 
CQUht for another fact stated by our American author in hie 

* Mod, Univ. Hist. Vol. znu page 452.- 



27 



; - Observations on Climate,*' in support of his opinion, that 
climate will change the colour of man. " A colony of Por- 
tuguese," says he, " who settled at Mitamba, in Africa, are 
become black, with crisped hair ; they are only distinguished 
by their language from the aborigines." For this he cites a 
pamphlet entitled, " Account of the Trade of Great Britain 
with Africa," But the fact to which he alludes, is more cor- 
rectly stated in a more authentic work. Mitamba, is another 
name, or perhaps the more proper one, for the river Sierra 
Leone, on what is called the Malaguetta or Grain Coast of 
Africa ; where the English colony of blacks have been lately 
settled. The French were the first Europeans who were 
possessed of the trade in these ports, as far back as about the 
year 1336 ; but were dispossessed thereof by the Portuguese. 
These, for a number of years, retained possession of small 
settlements on this coast ; but the great advantages derived 
by them from this commerce, having excited the emulation 
of the English and Dutch in 1664, their power began to give 
way to the more warlike and commercial spirit of these rivals. 
They lost, gradually, all their settlements, and being forced 
to retire into the interior countries, they resolved, as the last 
effort, to unite themselves zcith the natives by marriage-, whence 
sprung the mixed progeny of mulattoes more numerous here 
than in any part of Guinea. These African Portuguese have 
established an extensive power in many parts of Africa ; 
their complexion and alliances gaining them every where the 
liberty of commerce. These mulattoes have introduced, all 
along this coast, a kind of corrupt Portuguese language, (no 
more understood in Lisbon than Arabic, as the author states,) 
which is used by all the negro interpreters, when they ex- 
plain any thing to the Europeans.* Now, here we have a 
plain unembellished account of our American author's " co- 
lony of Portuguese become black with crisped hair that is, 
the Portuguese settlers on the continent of Africa, have, by 
intermarriages with the natives, become mulattoes ; precisely 
the invariable fate of all the inhabitants of the southern 
States of America, should the Society, now formed for colo^ 
nizing the blacks, fail in their proposed purposes. 

Although we have already occupied more space in this 
part of our subject, than was originally intended or could be 
well spared, yet the reader's patience is solicited, for a few 
remarks further, on what our American author (Mr, William- 
son) has said, in answer to the fact of the uniformity of colour 
of our American aborigines* " On the whole continent of 

* The above account of these Portuguese mulattoes is taken 3 almost fW~ 
baliin, from the Mod. Univ. Hist. Vol. xvii. p. 226, 314= 



.28 



America," he admits, " there is not a black Indian ;" but to 
this he adds, " nor is there a spot for which a black skin is 
required, no winds prevail in America, that rise on a hot 
surface or a sandy desert ; nor is there any large tract, with^ 
in the tropics, that is remarkably hot." The celebrated 
traveller, Humboldt, whose works have been published, I 
believe, since Mr. Williamson wrote, seems to give a differ- 
ent statement of the continent of America u within the tro- 
pics." In the abridged views of Humboldt's work, entitled 
" Tableau Physique des Regions Equatorales," &c. given to 
us by the learned editor or editors of the " Edinburgh Re- 
view," a part of the journey of Humboldt and his companion 
Bonpland, through the tropical regions is thus described :* 
" From Porto Cabello," which is in the province of Caraccas, 
" our travellers, directing their course southwards, crossed on 
horseback to the vast plains of Calaboza, Apure, and Oronoco.j 
They next traversed the famous Llanos, an immense succession of 
deserts, stretching near two hundred miles on a dead level, abso- 
lutely destitute of springs or rivulets, and only covered with a tall 
rank herbage. Over this desolate and pathless expanse they 
journeyed for whole days without meeting a single shrub, or a 
solitary cabin to refresh the eye ; while they suffered, besides, 
extremely from the intense confined heat, which rose to one hundred 
and ten or one hundred and fifteen degrees of Fahrenheit's scale." 

We might suppose this heat to be sufficient either to burn 
the skin black or to crisp the hair. But the remarks of Hum- 
boldt, as to this subject, are mere pointed. 

" The observations of Humboldt throw a steady light on the 
constitution and habits of the native Indians. The same copper- 
coloured race appears scattered over the greater part of the conti- 
nent of America. It is not, however, of that unvaried hue, which 
authors have described ; nor do the shades of complexion even follow 
what has been deemed the law of climate. The natives of the tem- 
perate tract of New-Spain are in general of a deeper cast than the 
inhabitants of the hottest parts of South America." 

These facts seem to suggest strong grounds for supposition, 
that " the shades of complexion do not follow the law of cli- 
mate" in other quarters of the world. If the aboriginal 
inhabitants of America, in the more " temperate tracts" 

* Not being able to have recourse to the original work of Humboldt, I have 
supposed that an abridged substance of it would be sufficient for our present 
purpose. The talents and learning of the gentleman who was the principal 
editor of the Edinburgh Review, about the year 1810, (the time of the review 
of the above work,) was unquestionable, and, where his mind was unbiassed 
by politics, as we may suppose it to have been in the present instance, his 
statement of a work may be safely followed. 

t According to the map of Sonth Amercia in Robertson's History of America, 
the town of Calaboza is in about 8 deg. of north latitude, and in about 48 dee. 
CO min. longitude, west from Ferro. The river Apure empties into the Oronoco. 
in about 7 deg. north latitude. 



29 



therefore, are "of a deeper cast than those of the hottest 
parts" of this continent, it would appear to create an irre- 
sistible inference, that neither climate nor heat are the true 
and real causes of the various colours of mankind. Our 
American author, however, as if aware of this strong conclu- 
sion against him, endeavours to counteract it, by observing, 
that the Andes, alleged to be the highest mountains in the 
world, cool the air of the whole southern part of our conti- 
nent. This certainly is not satisfactory ; for, this fact may 
well be doubted, after what has been stated as above by 
Humboldt. Besides, according to Major Rennell's improved 
map of Africa, inserted in All Bey's Travels, before cited, 
there runs a vast ridge of very high mountains, called the 
mountains of Kong, possibly (for they have not yet been 
sufficiently explored by Europeans) as high as the Andes, 
commencing near the Atlantic Ocean, in about 12 deg. of 
north latitude, and extending from thence due east more than 
halfway across the continent. On both sides of these moun- 
tains the negroes are the blackest of any in Africa ; Nigritia, 
or Negro-Land, a tract of fertile country, lying along their 
northern, and Guinea on their southern exposure. By parity 
of reasoning, these mountains ought to cool the air so, that 
these negroes ought to have the complexion of the American 
Indians, 

Before we quit this part of our subject, although the mere 
quotation of authors, as authorities to support a favourite 
theory is not the best mode of proving the truth of it, yet 
as those who oppose the opinion— that the colour of Negroes 
is the mere effect of climate, are accused of being infidels 
in the doctrine of divine revelation, in denying the origin 
of mankind from one common parentage, it will be proper 
to cite here the opinion of that " Christian Virtuoso" and 
celebrated chymist and natural philosopher, the honourable 
Mr. Boyle, whose philosophical works have placed him next 
in rank, in the honours of English philosophy, to lord Ba- 
con and sir Isaac Newton. In his tract, entitled, " Experi- 
ments and Observations upon Colours," he has entered into 
an inquiry into the cause of blackness in the negroes : 

" The cause of blackness," he observes, "in whole nations of 
Negroes, has been long disputed by learned men, However, I 
shall freely acknowledge, that this inquiry seems more abstruse to 
me than it does to many others ; because, consulting many authors 
and travellers, to satisfy myself in matters of fact relating to it, I 
have met with some things among them, which seem not to agree 
with the notion of the most classic writers upon this head. It is 
commonly presumed, that the heat of the climates inhabited by 
Negroes, is the cause of their colour ; and this principally, be- 



30 



cause we plainly see, that mowers, reapers, and other country 
people, who spend the most part of the summer days in the heat 
of the sun, have the skin of their hands and faces, which are im- 
mediately exposed to his rays, of a dark colour, and tending to 
blackness. But this argument seems far more specious than con- 
vincing ; for though the heat of the sun may darken the colour 
of the skin, yet experience doth not show, that heat alone is suf- 
ficient to produce a discolouration, which shall amount to a true 
blackness, like that of the Negroes. Besides, in many parts of 
Asia, under the same parallel, or in the same degree of latitude 
with the African regions, inhabited by blacks, the people are but 
tawny. And in Africa itself, many nations in the empire of Ethi- 
opia are not negroes, though situate in the torrid zone, and as near 
the equinoxial, as other natives, that are black, 

" But further, eminent authors inform us, that there are Negroes 
in Africa, not far from the Cape of Good Hope, and consequently 
beyond the southern tropic ; and out of the torrid zone, about the 
same latitude to the north, there are many American nations, that 
are not Negroes. Nay, I find, by our latest accounts of Greenland, 
that the inhabitants there are olive-coloured, or rather of a darker 
hue. 

" There is another opinion as to the complexion of the Negroes 
not only embraced by many of the vulgar writers, but by men of 
eminence and learning, who would have their blackness an effect 
of Noah's curse upon Cham. But though a naturalist may safely 
believe all the miracles attested by the holy scriptures, yet in this 
case to fly to a supernatural cause, will, I fear, look like shifting 
off the difficulty, instead of solving it ; for we here inquire not 
into the first and universal, but the proper, immediate, and physi- 
cal cause of the blackness in Negroes. Besides, 'tis not expressed 
in scripture, that the curse meant by Noah to Cham, was the black-, 
ness of his posterity. But how is blackness a curse ? for navi- 
gators tell us of black nations, who think so differently of their 
condition, that they paint the devil white. 

" 'Tis very probable that the principal cause of blackness in 
Negroes is some peculiar and seminal impression ; for black chil- 
dren, brought over into these colder climates lose not their colour. 
And credible authors inform us, that the offspring of negroes, 
transplanted out of Africa above a hundred years ago, still retain 
the complexion of their progenitors ; though possibly, in tract of 
time, it will decay ; on the other hand white people removing 
into very hot climates, have their skins, by the heat of the sun, 
scorched into dark colours ; though neither they nor their chil- 
dren are observed, even in the countries of Negroes, to descend 
to a true black." 

Although this eminent philosopher's idea of " seminal im- 
pression" being the cause of blackness in Negroes, (by 
which he seems to explain, in a subsequent passage to that 
just quoted, as meaning something synonymous to marks im- 
pressed by accidental fcstus in the womb,) is not likely to 
produce much stronger conviction on the minds of modern 



31 



readers, than the opinion of the effects of climate, which he 
so forcibly combats ; yet, although he thus fails in substi- 
tuting a probable cause of his Own, he is, nevertheless, suc- 
cessful in destroying that of others, particularly that of cli- 
mate. 

I have now to apologize to the reader, for having led him 
further into the discussion of the effects of climate in colour- 
ing the human skin, than he may, perhaps, have thought ne- 
cessary to our present purpose. But, as those religionists, 
who have been most strenuous in their exertions for the abo- 
lition of the slavery of Negroes in the American States, 
constantly dwell upon the crime of enslaving our fellozv- 
creatures, and maintain that these Negroes are entitled to all 
the rights of mankind, placing them upon an equality with 
white men, I have thought it necessary to show what I con- 
ceive to have been the manifest design of the Creator of all 
things, that they are an inferior species of mankind, placed, as 
they have been, by accident among us, and cannot with pro- 
priety be admitted to an equal participation of the rights of 
our society* And further, that it being manifestly the divine 
will of the Supreme Beings in having created different spe- 
cies and races of mankind, an intermixture and amalga- 
mation of them, if it should be possible, cannot be admit- 
ted without counteracting the divine purposes of that Su- 
preme Being, in having created different species and races 
of mankind, an intermixture and amalgamation of them, if 
it should be possible, cannot be admitted without counter- 
acting the divine purposes of that Supreme Being. But the 
probability is, that before this possibility could take place, an 
extermination of one of the two races will ensue. A de- 
monstration of this horrible consequence belongs to another 
part of our subject. 

It may, however, be necessary for the author, before he 
suffers his reader to pass to any other branch of this Essay, 
to protest against any inference being drawn from his en- 
deavours to prove the existence of distinct species or races 
of mankind, that he therefore holds it lawful, on the princi- 
ciples of either justice or policy, to treat the blacks or ne- 
groes with cruelty in any manner. Were they on a level 
with the brute creation, which he is far from either believing 
or maintaining, yet they would even in that case be entitled 
to an exemption from any cruel treatment. That excellent 
system of laws, the common law of England, inflicts pecuni- 
ary punishment on any individual, who will treat his own 
brute beasts with any obviously unnecessary cruelty.* The 

* This principle of the common law has been adopted in Pennsylvania. 
See a case in the first volume of Dallas^s Reports, wher.e a man was fined 
for beating a horse iu a cruel and unmerciful manner, 



32 



pride of man has whispered in his ear, that all the animal 
creation was made for his use : 

"And man for mine, replies the pamper'd goose." 
It does appear, indeed, to have been the original design of 
the Creator, that all carnivorous animals should prey upon 
each other ; each genus or species having some other one or 
more on which it delights to feed, and from which it derives 
sustenance. But, although animal food may be necessary 
for the sustenance of man, yet that by no means warrants 
him in the infliction of barbarous and cruel treatment even 
on such animals as are destined for his food. How much 
more, therefore, is humanity due to any one of the races or 
species of mankind. Nature, forbidding mankind to use 
each other for food, they are thereby forbid to inflict on each 
other either death or unnecessary cruelty. Although the 
laws of ancient states vested in the master the power of 
depriving his slave of life, yet the progress of civilization 
has taught us better and more humane sentiments.* As a 
species of mankind, the Negroes are entitled to all the rights 
of man. They are entitled, if you please, to their liberty : 
yes — but not to enjoy it so as to endanger, not only the peace 
and happiness, but the very existence, of another race of 
people. Man, it is said, is a gregarious animal ; but each 
species or race has a right to keep its flock from herding or 
mixing with others. Should chance or accident have brought 
two of these flocks together, the minor party must yield the 
exclusive right of the field and pasture to the majority. 
The latter have a right to drive the former to seek other 
haunts and other climes. To apply the allegory ; the zvhites 
have a right to say to the blacks, your residence with us is in- 
compatible with our safety ; even could we tolerate the idea 
of an intermixture of the blood of our two races, yet there 
is too much probability, that ere that event could eventually 
take place, quarrels and contests would assurredly produce 
an extermination of one or the other of us. You are now 
our slaves, but we give you your liberty, provided you will 
quietly seek a home in some other country. If do not this 
willingly, we must remove you by force. 

* It may not be improper to mention here, that the laws of South-Carolina 
either were, or are yet, consonant with the ancient Roman law on this sub- 
ject. About ten years ago the owner of a negro slave in Charleston put him 
to death by laying his head on a block and chopping it off with an axe. He 
was arrested for a supposed crime ; but, it being proved, that he was the 
owner of the slave, the court discharged him, adjudging that he had not done 
an unlawful act. It is from such incidents among us, that Europeans, are 
induced to exclaim — "Is k not monstrous to hear the loudest yelps of liberty 
from negro-drivers ?*' 



53 



SECT. II. 

&$ to the Policy and Necessity of the Measure* 

There are few political measures, of which the people in 
their social state, or the constituted authorities of their gov- 
ernment are called upon to take cognizance, upon which 
much abstract reasoning can be profitably exercised. The 
surest ground, upon which the policy of a measure is to be 
determined, is to form the judgment upon past events. It 
would be in itself useless to the people of these United 
States, especially those to the southward of Pennsylvania, to 
exhibit to them mere inferences, though almost irresistible, 
drawn from the nature of their mixed population, that either 
an intermixture of the two races of mankind, of which that 
population is composed, or a total extermination of the one 
or the other race, must inevitably be the consequence of the 
present state of things. The question has been often asked 
of these zealous enthusiasts for the unconditional emanci- 
pation of the Negroes in these States, with what propriety 
could you refuse to these blacks all their share of the political 
rights of our society, as well as the civil, for which you so 
warmly, I would say blindly, contend, fearless or regardless 
of the consequences of your zeal ? When you have com- 
pletely succeeded in your views of a total emancipation, can 
you still the voices of these unfortunate black people, when 
they come to the hustings of your elections, and demand 
their undeniable right to vote for those delegates and repre- 
sentatives, by whose laws they are to be bound ? Are they 
not as much entitled to their political as their civil rights ? 
Will they be contented with voting only ? Will they not 
demand their right also to be elected to office, if they can 
obtain a majority of the voices of the freemen of their dis- 
trict ? And in how many districts of the southern States 
would they not have a majority even of their own colour ? 
When thus elected to office, and placed as a delegate or re- 
presentative by the side of his white brethren, some of whom 
or whose immediate ancestors have perhaps inflicted the lash 
upon his black skin, or his ancestor, would he not look 
askaunt at them with a jealous eye 1 Rest assured, thou 
blind or hypocritical emancipator of slaves, that more formi- 
dable parties will arise in these States, with more inveterate 
and hostile feelings and sentiments towards each other, 
than either whig ortpry, federalist or democrat, ever felt or 



34 



meditated towards each other. Compared with the obvious 
distinctions, which nature has written in zuhite and black vis- 
ible to the eye, all other party-terms would be idle, abstract, 
unmeaning, and unintelligible epithets. There would be no 
sly changes from federalist to democrat, and from democrat 
to federalist, as best suited convenience. Each man would 
carry his indelible political character in his face. What white 
man would then dare to deny equal rights to the blacks? 
But further — when they have thus risen to an equal partici- 
pation in the honours and dignities of the legislative, exec- 
utive, and judicial branches of your government, and from 
the emoluments of office or otherwise have acquired equal 
wealth and power with the best of you, think you not, proud 
white man, that they will not demand your daughter in mar- 
riage ? Yes : a motley race must be the consequence. We 
should never again hear a representative in Congress boast- 
ing of his Saxon ancestors. He might think himself happy, 
indeed, if he could boast of having in his veins the royal 
blood of some African prince. But believe me, thou blind 
or hypocrital advocate for unconditional emancipation, there 
is not the slightest probability, that these white and black 
parties would ever arrive at such friendly associations. 
Noyades, fusillades, the gallows or the guillotine, would long 
ere this period of their union, blot out all their differences 
and distinctions. Nor cherish it in thy vain imagination, 
thou professedly pacific religionist, that all thy busy factious 
labours for the emancipation of these blacks, will avail to 
arrest for a single moment the arm of thy murderer. Bound 
by stronger ties than the sentiment of gratitude — the sanction 
of an affiliated oath, under the preservation of his own life, 
he can spare no zuhite human being. But I am anticipating 
another branch of my subject. Let us subdue our feelings 
so as to reason calmly, and endeavour to deduce our true 
policy on this occasion from the lessons of history. 

Slavery as it existed in the ancient republics of Greece 
and Rome, furnishes no useful analogy to reason from in our 
case. There every slave was a white man. It was but to 
do him justice, to restore him to the rights of human nature, 
and, as a human being, he was immediately lifted to the level 
of any other white man in the community, with no discern- 
ible personal difference. So also of the villeins of Europe 
in the feudal ages ; emancipated from their regardancy to the 
soil of the manor, to which they belonged, they became 
honest and respectab-e tenants. Another age saw them 
mixing in blood and association with their former lords and 
masters. They were all of the same white European race. 
The history of modern Europe, however, furnishes one soli- 



tary instance, from which, as it would seem, some analogical 
deductions, illustrative of our present purposes may perhaps 
be drawn. 

We have before supposed, that the ancient Mauritanians, 
or Mauri were descended from Phut one of the sons of Ham. 
It is also supposed, that a colony of Phenicians, migrating 
to the northern parts of Africa, and mixing with the descend- 
ants of Phut, contributed to form the nation called by the 
Romans Mauri. But these circumstances by no means war- 
rant us in supposing that these Mauri, or Moors, who are in 
modern ages well known to be of a tawny colour, derived 
that complexion from their ancestors just mentioned. It is 
more probable, that they became so by a subsequent inter- 
mixture with the Negroes of Nigritia or Negro-Land. This 
is strongly corroborated by facts stated in the very recent 
travels of AH Bey, beforementioned, who states, that the 
seraglio of every Mahometan of rank in that country, is half 
filled with black girls ; and the emperor of Morocco, as a 
special mark of his favour to this learned Spanish traveller, 
presented him two wives, one of whom was black ; a cir- 
cumstance, that seemed not a little to embarrass the pseudo- 
mussulman. To this notorious intermixture the tawny co- 
lour of the Moor must be evidently traced 5 and this inter- 
mixture must have commenced long before their conquest 
of Spain, which took place in the early part of the eighth 
century. It is from this their conquest of that country, and 
long possession of it for almost nine hundred years, until 
the year 1609, when they were finally and completely ex- 
pelled therefrom, we may draw a very satisfactory conclusion 
as to the difficulty of amalgamating two distinct races of 
people differing so essentially in almost every national cha- 
racteristic, as the Moors, together with their leaders the 
Arabs or Saracens, did from the Spaniards, who were, at the 
time of that conquest mostly the immediate descendants of 
the Goths. It is true, that the irreconcileable repugnancy 
of their respective religions, the Christian and Mahometan, 
formed an invincible barrier against their union. But we 
are authorized in supposing, that the fair complexion of the 
Goths, originally a northern nation, could not easily be re- 
conciled to an intermixture with that of the tawny Moor, 
and that this also formed no inconsiderable objection to it. 
Although some intermixture did actually take place, and 
hence is derived the well kown swarthy complexion of the 
Spaniards at this day, yet the repugnancy of the ancient 
Spaniards to this intermixture may be strongly enforced from 
a fact often stated by the historians of Spain — that the highest 
pride of a Spanish grandee is to trace his pedigree from 



36 



some one of those illustriotfs Goths, who so nobly, in the 
mountains of Asturias, defended and maintained their liberty 
and independence from the barbarous incursions of the 
Moors and Saracens. When, therefore, the Negroes of this 
American Republic have overrun the better half of it, from 
Florida to Pennsylvania, as they most assuredly will in the 
present course of things, and have obliged their many-acred 
masters of Virginia and Carolina to become their tenants 
and vassals, as was the case in Spain with many an honest 
Goth to his Moorish master, and should it ever afterwards 
be the good fortune of our present republican lords, as it 
was of those of the Spanish nation, to regain the possession 
of their country, how many of them will be able, like the 
Spanish grandee, to boast the purity of their blood, uncon- 
taminated by that of the African. But where are any Astu- 
rian mountains in America, for the southern white man to 
retreat to ? If he seeks shelter on the Alleghanies, he is 
there met by the negroes of Kentucky and Tennessee, 
Should any white man of Maryland be so fortunate as to 
escape into the neighbouring State of Pennsylvania, he will 
be there told by the pacitic quaker, with placid smiles, 
Friend, we have no room for thee here — -return to thine own 
State, and submit to the blacks — it as proper that they 
should govern thee, as that thou shouldst govern them. 
Should we solicit aid from the New-Yorkers— alas ! they are 
at this moment making sport of our fears. The very for- 
mation of this laudable society for the colonization of the 
blacks, is now the subject of their mirth.* How can we, 
therefore, expect any relief or assistance from them ? Does 
not prudence, therefore, dictate to us our earliest diligence 
in adopting some arrangement which shall, if possible, pre- 
vent all these horrible consequences ? 

Some further inferences are to be drawn from this histori- 
cal incident of the expulsion of the Moors from Spain. The 

* A most unwarrantable attack on Mr. Clay, Speaker of the House of Re- 
presentatives, has been made by a writer in, if not the editor of, a news- 
paper in New- York, entitled "The Courier," on account of his instrumen- 
tality in the formation of the above-mentioned Society at Washington. In 
the broken gibberish of a Negro, ridicule is attempted to be thrown on his 
character for his agency in this business. It does not appear to have been 
meant merely as an attack on Mr. Clay's political character, but an endea- 
vour is manifested through the whole of. the silly publication to exhibit a 
sort of argument to prove, that the negro is as much entitled to remain here 
and keep possession of this country, as any white man is. Can there be a 
greater enemy to his country existing in any part of these United States i 
For the honour of human nature, let us suppose the publication alluded to, 
to be the effusion of some silly scribbler, who, being flattered into a suppo- 
sition that he is a man of wit, yet exhibits a total deficiency in that neces- 
sary quality of the mind—judgment in the exercise of it. 



Spanish nation was divided into two parties concerning tin's 
measure ; somewhat similar, it is to he apprehended, to a 
division of sentiment in America on the proposed coloniza- 
tion. The clergy in Spain were zealous for the expulsion. 
They affirmed, that being Mahometans, and daily encreasing 
in numbers, these Moriscoes, or race of Moors, would be 
constantly endeavouring to regain their conquests over the 
christians. The barons were opposed to it ; for they were 
unwilling to lose their best tenants and cultivators of their 
soil. " It must be allowed," says the historian, " that the 
clergy spoke truth and sense in affirming it to be very dan- 
gerous to let them remain in Spain."* And we may add, 
that it is evident, that the Spanish grandees, like those of 
the United States on the present occasion, who oppose the 
scheme of colonization, were cherishing their temporary 
interests at the hazard of all the wealth, power, and even 
the existence of their posterity. The clergy, as those of 
Spain generally do, and properly in this case, finally pre- 
vailed. An edict for that purpose was subscribed by king 
Ferdinand, on the 1 1th of September, 1609, and eighty thou- 
sand families of Moors we transported at different times out 
of Spain into Barbary, where his Catholic majesty interposed 
his interest to procure them a good reception, and the best 
settlements that could be given them. Such also is the ob- 
vious policy of these United States. 

We are now to pass on to one of the most solemn political 
lessons that history ever taught to a slave-holding nation. 
The dreadful massacre of a greater portion of the white popu- 
of St. Domingo, together with the total expulsion of the 
surviving part of them, by the negroes of that island, which 
occurred not many years since, affords an awful warning to 
enthusiasts in the cause of liberty, whether domestic, civil, 
or political, abundantly sufficient, as we should suppose, to 
deter all such zealots within these States, from indulging 
themselves in their intemperate and visionary schemes of 
enfranchisement, without the slightest regard to consequences. 
And here, as the author of this essay may unguardedly drop 
some harsh expressions, relative to the conduct of the advo- 
cates for the emancipation of slaves, and may thereby draw 
on himself some recriminating accusations, as being an advo- 
cate for slavery, he takes this occasion, once for all, to deny 
the charge. Freely would he manumit, at any moment, those 
few slaves which he holds, (in number about fifteen.) was 
their emancipation to be accompanied with a gradual depor-. 
tation of them, as contemplated by their colonization. He 



* Mod. Univ. Hist. Vol. xxi. page 340. 



3fc 

would then suppose, that he was thereby doing an act of 
benefit to his country, as well as relief to himself. But, in 
the present progress of things, the emancipators of slaves are 
obviously contributing to form gangs of plundering banditti, 
who must, in the nature of things, collect in a few years into 
formidable armit s of insurrection, and commence a servile 
war more dangerous than that which once threatened the 
existence of the mighty republic of Rome. He is not, there- 
fore, an advocate for the holding of slaves. By approving 
their colonization, he becomes an advocate for their eman- 
cipation, in the best, if not the only, mode in which it can 
be ever safely effected. 

Prior to the American revolution, few disquisitions con- 
cerning the lawfulness of slavery appear in print. The courts 
of justice in England had, indeed, in one or two cases, par- 
ticularly in one about the year 1772, decided against the 
legality of holding a negro in slavery within that kingdom. 
But in America, wiien the revolution here had made some 
progress, and French philosophical foreigners, as we may 
suppose, as well as some English writers, had expressed 
themselves with keen severity on the inconsistency and ab- 
surdity of our clamours for liberty, while we were at the 
same time holding so many wretched human beings in the 
most abject slavery, the subject seems to have been for the 
first time in America, brought to discussion. Accordingly, 
in Philadelphia, at that time the metropolis of the United 
Colonies, in the early part of the year 1781, some very inge- 
nious and well-written publications appeared in Bradford's 
" Pennsylvania Journal," for and against domestic slavery. 
The advocate for slavery grounded himself on the Law of 
Nature and Nations, and on the sanction of the revealed law 
both of the Old and New-Testaments. On the former, by 
reason of the right of the captor in war to take the life of 
his captive, and consequently on the humane commutation 
of the death into slavery ; on the latter, by a variety of quo- 
tations from both the Old and New-Testaments expressly 
authorizing it. But on the first ground, his opponent very 
properly denied the right of the captor, according to the 
modern usage of nations at war, to take the life of his cap- 
tive ; which effectually cut up the major proposition of the 
advocate for slavery, and consequently refuted his conclu- 
sions. But he was not so successful in his answer on the 
other ground, the law of divine revelation. It was in vain 
to urge the mild spirit of humanity, alleged to be the cha- 
racteristic of a particular system, against its express letter ; 
and, however desirable it might have been to bend the text 
to a desired construction, yet these quotations were too ob- 



3d 

stinate for that purpose.* Although it is said, that the oppo- 
sition to domestic slavery commenced with the Quakers in 
Pennsylvania, yet it does not appear, that these discussions, 
just referred to, emanated from any of that society. t This 
sect, however, appear to have commenced their opposition 
to it, coeval with these publications, if not prior to them ; 
and with them, their religious society in England readily 
co-operated, it being a philanthropic doctrine quite congenial 
with the pacific principles of that sect, as well as the maxims 
of liberty recognised by the English laws. The population 
of Pennsylvania, moreover, comprised but a very few slaves, 
compared with the southern States ; and so favourable an 
opportunity was now presented to that sect of displaying the 
pride of their principles — an uncommon philanthropy, that 
the esprit de corps of their society was excited to a high 
degree. In England this sect was joined in those philan- 
thropic schemes by other religious enthusiasts ; particularly 
by one gentleman in that country, high in rank for his wealth, 
talents, and public influence, Mr. Wilberforce. In conse- 
quence of these coincident circumstances a society was 
formed in that kingdom for the relief of the blacks. Enor- 
mous cruelties had been practised, as was well known, in the 
transportation of negro slaves from Africa to the British 
colonies ; and as much the largest portion of the British 
dominions in America had been lopped off by the treaty of 
1783, and the acknowledgment of the independence of their 
colonies on the American continent, the slave-trade, or rather 
the supply of their American colonies with slaves, became 
then a subject of minor consideration with most of the British 
statesmen. Mr. Pitt, therefore, warmly patronized Mr. 
Wilberforce's plan for suppressing that trade. The conse- 
quences were, acts of parliament, first for its regulation, and 
finally for its total suppression. 

Whilst these sentiments, opinions, and proceedings, rela- 
tive to slavery, were thus making a rapid progress both in 
America and in England, the French revolution commenced. 
That nation also had some colonies in America, containing 
a large population of feegroes ; of which, that of St. Domingo 
was the most considerable.]: The seeds of liberty, which 

* See the Appendix, Note III, 

t Illiterate individuals among the Quakers in America, at different periods 
during the eighteenth century, had published small tracts against slavery, 
such as those of William Burling, Ralph Sandy ford, Benjamin Lay, John. 
Woolman, and Anthony Benezet. But these were written in their way, and 
on a mistaken supposition, that slavery was contrary to the gospel; and they* 
therefore, could have little effect, particularly with the best informed poli- 
ticians of these States. 

* The French port of St. Domingo contained, at this time, no less than 
480,000 negroes in slavery, exclusive of free mulattoes, which laftey were 



40 



•were supposed to have been picked up by the French oftl- 
cers who served in America, being by them sown among 
their countrymen in France, produced the germs of their 
monstrous revolution. The white population of the French 
islands, it would seem, by their intercourse with America 
during their revolutionary war, imbibed also some free no- 
tions relative to the dependence of colonies on the mother 
country. Accordingly, within a few months after the volcano 
of enormities had burst forth on old France, the white colo- 
nists of St. Domingo took it into their heads, that they also 
had a right to be represented in the States General. Deputies 
were accordingly elected by them for that purpose, to the 
number of eighteen, who forthwith without any authority, 
either from the mother country or the colonial government, 
embarked for France, as the legal representatives of a great 
and integral part of the French empire. They arrived at 
Versailles in the latter end of June, 1789, about a month 
after the States General had declared themselves the Na- 
tional Assembly. But neither the minister, (Neckar,) nor 
ihe national assembly, were disposed to admit the full extent 
of their claims. The number of eighteen deputies from one 
colony was thought excessive, and it was with some difficulty 
that six of them only were admitted, on the fourth of July, 
1789, to take their seats among the national representatives. 
In pursuance of the meditated design of the French revolu- 
tionists thoroughly to overturn the existing order of things 
in France, u declamations in support of personal freedom, 
and invocations against despotism of all kinds had been the 
favourite topics of many eminent French writers for a series 
of years ; and the public indignation was now artfully raised 
against the planters of the West-Indies, as one of the means 
of exciting commotions and insurrections in different parts of 
the French dominions. This spirit of hostility against the 
inhabitants of the French colonies was industriously fomented 
and aggravated by the measures of a society, who called 
themselves, Amis desNoirs, (Friends of the Blacks.)* This 

more rmnerons in the French than in the English West-India islands. See 
Edward* s Hist. W. Indies. Vol. iv. page 13. 

* In an American newspaper, entitled " The Maryland Journal," of April 
9th, 1790, 1 find the following paragraph. " There has been lately established 
at Paris, a society, called The Friends of the Blacks. Among the founders of 
this society are three dukes, one dutchess, eight counts, seven marquisses, 
and two marchionesses. One of the latter is Madame de la Fayette, the 
wife of the marquis, whose own name is also enrolled as a member. The 
object of this society is, if possible, to prevent the African trade in future, 
which, if accomplished, it is expected that all actual slavery in the islands, 
&c. must, in the course of one or two centuries, cease of itself." It is impos- 
sible to conceive that one half of the members of such an association could be 
actuated by any other motive than mere ostentation j somewhat like our 



4 1 



society in France was originally formed on the model of a 
similar association in London, (before mentioned,) but the 
views and purposes of the two bodies took different direc- 
tions. The society in London professed to have nothing 
more in view than to obtain an act of the legislature for pro- 
hibiting the further introduction of African slaves into the 
British colonies. They disclaimed all intention of interfer- 
ing with the government and condition of the negroes already 
in the plantations ; publicly declaring their opinion to be, that 
a general emancipation of these people, in their present state 
of ignorance and barbarity, instead of a blessing, would prove 
to them a source of misfortune and misery. On the other 
hand, the society of Amis des Noirs in France, having se- 
cretly in view to subvert the ancient despotism of the French 
government, loudly clamoured for a general and immediate 
abolition, not only of the slave-trade, but of the slavery which 
it supported ."* 

Will it not be proper to remind the headstrong zealots of 
these States of the warning they ought here to take, in en- 
tertaining this same principle of " a general and immediate 
abolition of slavery." If they could persuade every citizen 
of these States into a resolution of adopting their doctrine, as 
they endeavour to do, would not " a general and immediate 
abolition" of slavery be the consequence ? And would not 
the same direful misfortune ensue as in St. Domingo ? This 
demonstrates, that a total stop should immediately be put to 
emancipation, unless accompanied hy transportation and 
colonization. 

Let us pursue our extracts from this valuable historical 
lesson. 

" At this juncture, a considerable body of the mulattoes, from 
St. Domingo and the other French islands, were resident in the 
French capital. Some of these were young people sent thither 
for education ; others were men of considerable property, and 
many of them, without doubt, persons of intelligence and amiable 
manners. With these people the society of Amis des Noirs 

Female Bible Societies. As to the poor weak marquis Fayette, an act of 
despicable cunning in him, relative to this society, is stated by a most respects- 
able historian, {Edwards, in his Hist. W. Indies, vol. iv. page 67.) which, if 
true, would warrant the assembly ol Maryland in repealing the law which 
made so unworthy a character a citizen of that State. " This man (Fayette) 
had formerly been possessed of a plantation at Cayenne, with seventy negro 
slaves thereon, which he had sold without any scruple or stipulation concerning 
the situation of the negroes, the latter end of 1789, and from that time enrolled 
himself among the friends of the blacks. 17 Here is an Amis des Noirs for you I 
He first sells his negroes, and then advocates the emancipation of them. A 
great philanthropist! provided it did not affect his interest. One would think 
that he had copied the conduct of some of his religions fellow citigeas «f 
Maryland. 

* Edwards's Hist. West Indies, Vol. iv. 17. 

6 



42 



formed an intimate connexion ; pointed out to them the wretched- 
ness of their condition ; filled the nation with remonstrances and 
appeals on their behalf ; and poured out 9uch invectives against 
the white planters, as bore away reason and moderation in the 
torrent." 

In this disposition of the people of France towards the 
inhabitants of their colonies in the West-Indies, the national 
assembly, on the 26th of August, 1780, voted the celebrated 
declaration of rights ; the first position of which was, " all 
men are born, and continue, free and equal as to their rights." 
Now, this postulate, if understood in the popular sense of it, 
would prevent the unequal acquisition of property by any 
individual in society, and would then be a principle obviously 
false, pernicious, and unfit for every condition of civilized 
life. Besides, the application of it to the rights of negro 
slaves, even as to their personal liberty, has really no just 
relevancy as to the difficulties of slave-holders. Few men 
will deny the abstract position, that all men in a state of 
nature, could they happen to be so, have equal rights ; but r 
that they continue so, after they enter into a state of society, 
is not only contrary to the fact, but is, in the nature of things in 
that state, utterly impossible. Moreover, otherpersons in the 
same society have rights also, as well as the negroes ; and, 
if the negroes cannot be restored to their right of personal 
liberty without the destruction, not only of the white portion 
of the society, but even of the very existence of these whites, 
it is obvious, that self-defence, the first of ail rights of human 
nature, demands that the negroes shall not obtain their right 
to liberty, at the expense of the right of existence inherent in 
the other party. But, suppose that the two races could both 
exist together, would not irreconcilable political dissentions 
be the natural consequences of their difference in colour ; 
and, for how many years must these dissentions subsist be- 
fore a complete amalgamation of the two races could take 
place ? Alas ! this confederated republic, and all its boasted 
institutions, would, long ere this event could occur, be 
obliterated and exist only in the pages of history. There is 
one remark which occurs here, and which ought not to be 
omitted, and that is, supposing the negroes of these States to 
be perfectly equal, as to their rights, with the whites, and 
consequently entitled, upon the principle of equality of rights, 
to the full enjoyment of their personal liberty, and that this 
truth, though unknown to our ancestors, who introduced 
them as slaves into these colonics, is notwithstanding a self- 
evident truth at this day ; yet, it may be asked, are posterity 
answerable in all cases for the wicked or impolitic doings of 
their ancestors ? The Virginia planters, who bought the first 



43 



negroes from the Dutch, in the year 1620, that were landed 
in North America, did a very impolitic, and if you please, a 
wicked act. But, does it follow, therefore, that their de- 
scendants are answerable for their conduct in this respect, 
upon the principles of natural justice ? It is enough for them 
to hear the evil with which their ancestors have saddled 
them, and it ought not to-be required of them, by an attempt 
to atone for the misconduct of their ancestors, to bring on 
themselves incalculable misfortunes. Common prudence, 
and indeed self-preservation, requires them to look about 
themselves and pause, before they attempt to apply a remedy 
for the supposed injustice done near two hundred years ago 
to these African people. Upon the maturest reflection, it 
is now thought by some of the most judicious and discreet 
among us, that the most prudent measure is, to transplant 
them gradually out of these States into the land of their pro- 
genitors. 

To pursue our historical lesson. These proceedings in 
the mother country alarmed the white French inhabitants of 
St. Domingo. They proceeded to form provincial assemblies 
in the three several provinces of the French part of the 
island, in order to consult about their situation, and to take 
measures relative to an order from the king, which had ar- 
rived in January, 1790, for the convocation of a general 
colonial assembly. Agreeably to the before-mentioned de- 
claration of rights by the national assembly, the free mulat- 
toes in the colony contended that they had a right to vote, 
and sit in these assembles, and boldly took up arms to main- 
tain their claim. They were for a time suppressed. They 
were not, however, without encouragement by some impru- 
dent whites ; as will assuredly be the case, in the insurrection 
that must take place in these States. 

" A Mons. Dubois, deputy procurer-general, not only de- 
clared himself an advocate for the mulattoes, but, with a degree 
of imprudence which indicated insanity, sought occasions to de- 
claim publicly against the slavery of the negroes. He was arrested, 
and sent out of the country. A Mons. Ferrand de Beaudierre also, 
was not so fortunate. This gentleman was unhappily enamoured 
of a woman of colour, to whom, as she possessed a valuable plan- 
tation, he had offered marriage, and being a man of warm imagi- 
nation, with little judgment, he undertook to combat the prejudices 
of the whites against the whole class. He drew up, in the name 
and in behalf of the parochial committee, wherein, among other 
things, they were made to claim, in express words, the full benefit 
of the national declaration of rights. This memorial was considered 
as a summons to the negroes for a general revolt. The parochial 
committee seized the author, and committed him to prison ; but 
the (white) populace took him from thence by force, and in spite 



44 



of the magistrates and municipality, who exerted themselves t© 
stop their fury, put him to death." 

Are there not some white gentlemen in the State of Mary- 
land conducting themselves, exactly in the same manner, 
though properly with greater impunity ? Were there none 
among those who were lately, (in 1816.) so active in pro- 
curing signatures to a memorial to the assembly of Maryland 
to prevent the transportation of negroes out of the State, 
actuated by similar unfortunate attachments ? The Quakers 
too. always so factious in these matters, do they suppose, 
that, when the day of massacre comes, they will will be 
spared by both sides ? 

The general colonial assembly held at St. Mare, issued a 
remarkable decree on the 20th of May, 1790, by which they 
seem to have meant to place the island of St. Domingo 
nearly in a state of independence on the mother country; 
but which created such a division among the white colonists 
there, as brought them to the point of a civil war. It is 
remarkable also, that this decree gave equal displeasure to 
the democratic as well as the royalist parties in old France. 
Both equally averse to lose the pickings of the province, 
should the colonists thereof be allowed that degree of inde- 
pendence, which they seem to have aimed at by their decree, 
they both joined in decrying it. The Amis des Noirs fell to 
work in stimulating the muiattoes, then resident at Paris, 
against the white colonists on account of this decree. 

" A young mulatto man, then in Paris, of the name of James Oge, 
had been introduced to the meetings of the Amis des JVoirs, under 
the patronage ofGregoire, Brissot, La Fayette, and Robespierre, 
the leading members of that society ; and was by them initiated 
into the popular doctrines of equality and the rights of man. Here 
it was, that he first learnt the miseries of his condition ; the cruel 
wrongs and calamities to which he and all his mulatto brethren 
were expose: 1 in the West-Indies, and the monstrous injustice and 
absurdity of that prejudice, " which'" said Gregoire, " estimat- 
ing a man's merit by the colour of his skin, has placed at an im- 
mense distance from each other, the children of the same parent, 
a prejudice, which stifles the voice of nature, and breaks the bands 
of fraternity asunder."* 

* This Abbe Gregoire was originally a curate in some country town in 
France, but having a mind filled rathe* more with politics than religion, pro- 
cured himself to be elected as a deputy to the states-general at the com- 
mencement of the French revolution. He was the first of those of the clerical 
©rder, who joined the Tiers Etat, and afterwards the first ecclesiastic, who 
took the constitutional oath. In return for these indications of revolutionary 
zeal, he was made bishop of Blois, before the abolition of Christianity. 
Hence his great anxiety to carry on the French revolution and the christian 
system together ; but he was denounced by Bourdon de Z'Owe, as wishing to 
christianize tbe revolution, " christianise* la revolution and, therefore. 



That these are great evils must be frankly admitted, and it 
would have been fortunate if such men as Brissot and Gregoire, 
instead of bewailing their existence and magnifying their extent, 
had applied their talents in considering of the best practicable means 
redressing them." 

Excellent advice to the Amis des Noirs of America ; but 
perhaps the next paragraph applies to them also. 

" But these persons had other objects in view ; their aim was, 
not to reform, but to destroy ; to excite con vulsions in every part 
of the French empire ; and the ill-fated Ogc became the tool, and 
was afterwards the victim of their guilty ambition." 

It is true, that it cannot with certainty be said, that the 
Amis des Noirs of the United States have a direct intention 
" to destroy" their own existing government. But most of 
them have a " guilty ambition" of two sorts. These Amis des 
Noirs, in Maryland and the southern States, are chiefly com- 
posed of two religious sects remarkable for their fanaticism ; 
the Methodists and the Quakers. In Maryland particularly, 
the individual members of these sects are, for the most part, 
to be found among the lower and poorer classes of people. 
They have not only an " ambition" to distinguish themselves 
in the world for an uncommon philanthropy, of which the 
Quakers particularly have received their tone from the, 
perhaps well-meant, opinions of the better sort of their 
secUin Philadelphia and England, but much of the endea- 
vours of both sects in Maryland, in relation to the email- 

without doubt, became silent on that head. He, however, persevered in his 
philippics against Louis XVIth ; for there he was safe, and his invectives 
against the monarch covered his christian sins. Being a member of the Amis 
des Noirs and of the national assembly at the same time, he was one of the 
most furious as well as formidable zealots in behalf of the sans melees ox gens 
de couleur, (mulattoes) against the planters of St. Domingo. 

Brissot was a man of some literary genius, and, it is said, possed consider- 
able talents for eloquence ; but was totally destitute of that useful quality of 
the mind — judgment. It appears from his " Travels in America," that of all 
men who had seen so much of the world, he was the most liable to imposture. 
His mind seems to have been perfectly deranged, when he speaks of such 
visionary enthusiasts as Warner Mifflin and Anthony Benezet. Accordingly, 
when he returned to France, he did not fail to become one of the most zealous 
members of the society ef Amis des Nov's, and, like the advocates for uncon- 
ditional emancipation in the United States, was blind to the horrible conse- 
quences that were to flow from his attempts to disorganize the state of society, 
as it then existed in St. Domingo. It is possible, however, that afterwards, 
when the executioner was pinioning his arms on the scaffold of the guillotine, 
a faint ray of reason might have flashed across his mind, so as to have enabled 
him to see through all his clouds of error. But it was too late ; the blood of 
the planters had flowed too copiously. Most of them were, before that event, 
murdered; and but a small remnant saved themselves by flying into exile. 
In like manner, what satisfaction will it be to a planter in our southern States, 
when a similar butchery between the blacks and whites comes on, to be told 
by one of these religious enthusiasts, M 1 did not think it would have come to 
this." 



48 



cipation of the blacks, may be fairly traced to another 

sort of ; * ambition," of a most detestable kind ; an " ambi- 
tion" to elevate themselves by reducing all slave-holders of 
considerable property and distinction in society, to a level 
with themselves. Any one, who will scrutinize with a pene- 
trating eye the structure of society in our southern States, 
cannot fail in being struck with the general prevalence of 
this sort of vile useless " ambition," or rather envy, among 
the lower classes of our community* Hence, with these, 
who entertain these sentiments, all means of seducing the 
objects of it to humility and degradation, become grateful 
to their eyes ; and they would even hazard their own destruc- 
tion to accomplish their views in this respect. 

" This young mulatto man, Oge, had been led to believe, that 
the whole body of coloured people in the French islands were 
prepared to rise up, as one man, against their oppressors ; that no- 
thing but a discreet leader was wanting, to set them into action ; 
and, fondly conceiving that he possessed, in his own person, all the 
qualities of an able general, he determined to proceed to St. Do- 
mingo by the first opportunity. To cherish the conceit of his own 
importance, and animate his exertions, this society of Amis des 
A r cirs procured him the rank of lieutenant colonel in the army of 
one of the German Electors." 

" As it was found difficult to export a sufficient quantity of arms 
and ammunition from France, without attracting the notice of the 
government, and awakening suspicions among the planters "resi- 
dent in the mother country, the Society resolved to procure those 
articles in North- America, and it was recommended to Oge to 
make a circuitous voyage for that purpose. Accordingly, being 
furnished with money and letters of credit, he embarked for New- 
England, in the month of July, 1790." 

Arriving, in due time, into some port within the New- 
England States, he soon, with his money and credit, pro- 
cured the requisite quantity of arms and ammunition, and 
moreover an American vessel in which they should be trans- 
ported to St. Domingo, together with himself and suite. 

" Arriving at St. Domingo, he secretly landed there from an 
American sloop, on the 12th of October, 1 790, and found means to 
convey, undiscovered, the arms and ammunition which he had 
purchased, to the place which his brother had prepared for their 
reception." 

Thus we see, that the christian people of these United States 
became, either voluntarily or involuntarily, the aiders and 
abettors of the first horrible murders and cruelties that were 
perpetrated in St. Domingo. 

" The first notice which the white inhabitants received of Oge'- 
arrival was from himself. He despatched a letter to the governor. 
Teynier.) wherein he demanded in very imperious terms, that 



47 



the privileges enjoyed by one class of inhabitants (the whites) should, 
be extended to all persons without distinction; declares himself the 
protector of the mulattoes, and announces his intention of taking 
up arms in their behalf, unless their wrongs should be redressed." 

" He and his brothers having exerted themselves to the utmost 
in spreading disaffection and exciting revolt among the mulattoes, 
they established their camp, (consisting of about two hundred fol- 
lowers,) at a place called Grande Rivierre^ about fifteen miles 
from Cape Francois. The first white man that fell in their way 
they murdered on the spot : a second, of the name of Ticard, met 
the same fate ; and it is related, that their cruelty towards such 
persons of their own complexion as refused to join in the revolt- 
was extreme. A mulatto man of some property being urged to 
follow them, pointed to his wife and six children, assigning the 
largeness of his family as a motive for wishing to remain quiet. 
This conduct was considered as contumacious, and it is asserted, 
that not only the man himself, but the whole of his family were 
massacred without mercy."* 

It is sufficient for our present purpose here to mention, 
that Oge and his mulatto army were, by the vigorous exer- 
tions of the inhabitants and planters of the Cape and its 
environs, defeated, and he and his brother and another fol- 
lower were constrained to take refuge in the Spanish part 
of the island. They were, however, subsequently demanded 
by the French governor, from the Spaniards, who delivered 
them to the French. The wretched Oge and his lieutenant, 
Chevane, were soon afterwards put to a most cruel death, 
and this first insurrection of the mulattoes was, apparently, 
suppressed. It deserves to be added, however, that Rigaud, 

* In confirmation of this part of Mr. Edwards's history, (though ii needs 
none,) may be cited a parapraph from the "Maryland Journal and Baltimore 
Advertiser," of December 7th, 1790, (under the Philadelphia head,) purport- 
ing to be an "Extract of a Letter from a gentleman at Cape Francois, to 
his friend in this city," (Philadelphia,) "dated October 31st, 1790." 

"The disturbances in this place are at this time very great. Yesterday 
the inhabitants of the Cape drew lots to determine who should march against 
the free people of colour, who do great mischief in the plain, since the arrival 
of one Jluget, who is at their head, and who lately came from France by the 
way of New-England. The pretensions of this man arise from the second 
article of the bill of rights, drawn up in the national assembly ; by which all 
men are declared to be free and equal. They, therefore, contend that peo- 
ple of colour ought to enjoy rights equal to ours here. If this levelling prin- 
ciple should be adopted, the colony is lost for ever. They have taken very 
wrong methods of procuring the enjoyment of the rights they lay clain to. 
Thay began by plundering the planters of their money and arms, and have 
tilled two or three of the principal among them, and wounded four besides. 
They have also taken one thousand guineas from another planter. They 
have with them some field-pieces, and retire among the mountains ; they are 
four hundred in number. By an express extraordinary, arrived this afternoon, 
we hear of an engagement that happened twenty-four miles from this place, 
in which many of them have been killed, and three of the whites wounded : 
We are to send a supply of fresh troops and some field-pieces, in addition t# 
twelve hundred armed men, that have already marched from the Cape." 



48 



another leader of the mulattoes at this time in another quar- 
ter of the island, openly declared, " that it was a transient 
and deceitful calm, and that no peace zvould be permanent 
until one class of people had exterminated the other." A 
prediction too faithfully and unfortunately verified ! 

Here then, in this summary detail of the earliest horrors 
of St. Domingo, the commencement only of its final misfor- 
tunes, an important lesson of instruction might be read to 
our American Amis des Noirs. Here we are enabled to trace 
the true primitive causes of all those horrors. In the first 
place, in the false and unfounded proposition of the national 
assembly, " that all mem were born and continue free and 
equal in their rights and in the next place, in that hypo- 
critical or blind and blood thirsty conduct of the mumbers 
of the society of Amis des Noirs in Paris. One would have 
supposed, that they would have been contented in main- 
taining the abstract proposition of the national assembly, 
without lending their patronage and their purses to organize 
and arm a formidable banditti of mulattoes to butcher their 
white brethren and fellow-citizens of the colony. What 
shall we say too of the puritanic christian inhabitants of 
New-England ? Could the paltry profit, to be derived from 
the sale of arms and ammunition, justify these saints in put- 
ting the sword and the dagger into the hands of a band of 
murderous mulattoes, and privy, as they must have been, to 
the purposes for which these arms and ammunition were in- 
tended, in thereby aiding and abetting the most horrible 
butchery of men of their own species, to them unoffending? 
Is not this an earnest of what they are capable, when their 
fellow-citizens of the southern States come to experience 
the same calamities as the whites of St. Domingo ? There is 
something in religious fanaticism, especially when it takes 
an erroneous direction, that tends to harden the heart and 
give it a callousness beyond any other operation of the hu- 
man mind ; and this unrelenting hardness of heart is some- 
times even effected by hypocritical religionists, in order to 
keep up some appearance of sincerity. The deliberate 
cruelty of the saints in New-England in supplying these 
mulattoes of St. Domingo with arms and ammunition, and 
the wilful, cool, and obstinate perseverance of our Amis des 
Noirs in Maryland, in their disorganizing proceedings, can 
be attributed to no other causes. The enormities of the 
French revolution have been falsely alleged to have flowed 
from the dictates of philosophy. This is not a place to de- 
monstrate the falsity of this charge, or it could be easily done. 
The society of Amis des Noirs, as appears from the state- 
ment before given of the character of its members, consisted 



49 



principally of persons professing to be zealous for the sup- 
port of the christian religion, particularly Gregoire, and, as 
we may suppose, Fayette, with all the train of dutch esses, 
and marchionesses, who served to countenance its proceed- 
ings. It is true, that some philosophical deists mighi also 
have been of the number, and Brissot might, perhaps, be of 
this class of revolutionists ; though, his character, in this 
respect, as would appear from his " Travels," seemed to be 
rather equivocal. However, with the destruction of Brissot 
and what was called the Girqnde faction, historians date the 
expiration of the influence of philosophy in the progress of 
that horrible revolution. But the christian Gregoire con- 
tinued his career with Robespierre. Blood ! Blood ! was his 
cry. He announced to the assembly, " that, under a convic- 
tion of the Unremitting treachery of that perjured monarch, 
(Louis XVI.) lit solicited his condemnation zcithout an appeal 
to the people." As an Amis des Noirs we see him again in- 
stigating and abetting the mulattoes to cut the throats of 
Frenchmen ; for he appears, from the first commencement 
of the society, to have been the principal leader and corres- 
ponding secretary thereof.* 

" While these shameful enormities," (as before stated,) " were 
passing in St. Domingo, the society of Amis des Noirs in the mo- 
ther country, were but too successfully employed in devising 
projects which gave birth to deeds of still greater horror, and 
produced scenes that transformed the most beautiful colony in 
the world into a field of desolation and carnage." " It was now 
resolved by Gregoire, La Fayette, Brissot, and some other ■ pes- 
tilential reformers,' to call in the supreme legislative authority of 
the French government to give effect to their projects ; and, that 
the reader may already understand the nature and complexion of 
the mischief that, was meditated, and of those measures to which 
the ruin of the French part of St. Domingo is immediately to be 
attributed, it is necessary to recall his attention to the French 
national decree of the 20th of March, 1780," relative to the colo- 
nies, which contained, among other things, a direction '<that every 
person of the age of twenty-five and upwards, possessing property, 
or having resided two years in the colony, and paid taxes, should 
be permitted to vote in the formation of the colonial assembly." 

As mulattoes had never heretofore been permitted to vote 
at elections in St, Domingo, it was contended by the planters 
there, that this decree was not meant to extend to them. 
But this was not agreeable to the project of the Amis des 

* See his letter of the 15th May, 1791, to the Mulattoes of St, Domingo • 
lo Edward's Hist. West Indies, Vol. IV. pa. 99. k ' * 



30 



Noirs. To settle the doubt, they resorted to this influence 
in the national assembly. 

M In the beginning of May, 1791, the consideration of this sub- 
ject was brought forward by the Abbe Gregoire, and the claim of 
the free mulattoes to all the rights and privileges enjoyed by the 
white inhabitants, citizens of the French colonies, was supported 
by him with all that warmth and eloquence for which he was dis- 
tinguished. Unfortunately, at this juncture, the news of the 
miserable death of Oge arrived at Paris, and raised a storm of 
indignation in the minds of all ranks of people, which the planters 
resident in France were unable to resist. Nothing was heard in 
all companies but declamation against their oppression and cruelty. 
To support and animate the popular outcry against them, a tragedy 
pantomime, formed on the story of Oge, was represented at the 
public theatres. By these, and other means, the planters were 
become so generally odious, that for a time they dared not appear 
in the streets of Paris. These were the means by which Gregoire, 
Condorcet, La Fayette, Brissot, and Robespierre disposed the pub- 
lic mind to clamour for a new and explanatory decree, in which 
the rights of the colonial people should be placed beyond all future 
doubts and dispute. The friends and advocates of the planters 
were overpowered and confounded. In vain did they predict the 
utter destruction of the colonies, if such a proposal should pass 
into a law. ' Perish the colonies,' said Robespiere, ' rather 
than sacrifice one iota of our principles.' The majority reiterated 
the sentiment, and the famous decree of the 15th May, 1791, was 
pronounced amidst the acclamation and applause of the multitude. 
By this decree it was declared and enacted, ' that the people of 
colour resident in the French colonies, born of free parents, were 
enlitled to, as of right, and should be allowed the enjoyment of, 
all the privileges of French citizens, and among others, to those 
having votes in the choice of representatives, and of being eligible 
to seats both in the parochial and colonial assemblies.' "* 

Thus did the national assembly sweep away in a moment 
all the laws, usages, prejudices, and opinions concerning 
these people, which had existed in the French colonies from 
their earliest settlement. 

It ought to be borne in mind by our political zealots of 
the United States, that these furious advocates for liberty in 

* " It has been confidently asserted," (says Mr. Edwards, in his Hist. W. 
Indies, Vol. IV. pa. 67,) ** that La Fayette, in order to secure a majority 
on this question, introduced into the national assembly no less than eighty 
persons who were not members, but who sat and voted as such." Mr. Ed- 
wards's character and means of information were such as to leave little 
doubt of the truth of this assertion But, where are the terms in our lan- 
guage to express the dishonour and infamy attached to such an action ? The 
only palliation of it is to suppose, that some men frequently act dishonourably 
more from an innate stupidity than depravity of mind. 



31 



France, although they gloried in being the coadjutors of the 
British colonists in obtaining their independence and right of 
self-legislation, Fayette particularly ; yet, when their colo- 
nists in St. Domingo came to claim the like " sole and ex- 
clusive right of passing laws for their local and interior re- 
gulation and government," as in the government of their 
slaves and people of colour — Oh ! no, they say to their co- 
lonists ; we are the national assembly ; you must be governed 
by our laws. It is exactly as if tiie British parliament had, 
in the year 1774 or 1775, made a law, that all the free peo- 
ple of colour in these thirteen old colonies should not only 
be entitled to vote at elections, but to hold seats in our pro- 
vincial assemblies. Would such a statute have been submit- 
ted to ? No, surely. It would have been attended with far 
more unanimous and indignant rejection, than the act for an 
imposition of taxes. 

It is proper now to call the attention of the reader to the 
consequences of all these ill-fated doings of the Amis des 
Xoirs of France ; hoping that it may operate as a solemn 
warning to our Amis des Xoirs, to stay their hands from any 
further imitation of such mischievous proceedings. It seems 
extraordinary, that, although these French Amis des Noirs 
were neither blind or indifferent as to the consequences of 
their conduct, yet a respectable portion of the people of old 
France clearly foresaw them. Within a few days after the 
passage of this famous decree, an address was presented to 
the national assembly by the merchants of the city of Nantes, 
dated May 20th, 1791, which is so prophetic of the conse- 
quences thereof, that it ought not to be omitted. 

" Gentlemen, your decree of the 15th of May, sublime in the 
eyes of philosophy, and dictated by the love of humanity, will not 
prevent (permit this freedom to our patriotism,) its being the 
most inhuman, if its execution was not impracticable in the colo- 
nies. More terrible than the hurricanes which ravage these rich 
countries, it would carry with it all the evils reunited. It goes 
forth to rekindle upon these shores, already the spectacles of 
horror, the lire-brand of discord and civil war. Rivers of blood 
are going to be shed. Under this burning hemisphere the pas- 
sions are extreme : hatred and vengeance will display, in their 
true colours, their sanguinary effects. Ah! do not flatter your- 
selves, that these dreadful misfortunes are transient : no, gentle- 
men, as long as your fatal decree shall exist, the whites and colour- 
ed people cannot live together — one party or the other must be ex- 
terminated : there is no alternative ; and the conquering party, 
enfeebled by its victory, will fall a sacrifice to the slaves, too 
crafty to let slip the favourable moment of breaking their chains. 



52 



then will those horrible words be realized, which have made your 
walls resound — may the colonies perish. This barbarous wish is 
granted— -they are no more." 

In order to effectuate their diabolical intentions of an 
immediate emancipation of all the slaves of St. Domingo, the 
Amis des Noirs of Pans had artfully commenced their labours 
with the people of colour of that colony 5* " because" (as 
Mr. Edzvards has expressed it,) " they found many of them 
in France, who became the willing instruments of their pur- 
poses ; and who undertook to interpret to the negroes in 
the French colonies the wishes and good intentions towards 
them of their friends in the mother country. Thus an open- 
ing was made towards conciliation and union between the 
two classes. The negroes, believing that it was only through 
the agency of the mulattoes, and the connexions of those 
people in France, they could obtain a regular supply of 
arms and ammunition, forgot or suspended their ancient 
animosities; and the men of colour, sensible that nothing but 
the co-operation of the enslaved negroes could give success 
to their cause, courted them with such assiduity, as gained 
over at least nine-tenths of all the slaves in the northern 
province of St. Domingo." To obviate any possible differ- 
ence between these two classes, the Abbe Gregoire wrote 
his celebrated circular letter to the people of colour of St. 
Domingo, exhorting them to unanimity and friendship with 
the negroes. " It is true," says he, " the national assembly 
has not ye i raised the condition of the enslaved negroes to a 
level w ith your situation ; because, suddenly granting the 
rights, to those w r ho are ignorant of the duties of citizens, 
might perhaps have been a fatal present to them ; but forget 
not, that they, like yourselves, are born to freedom and per- 
fect equality.'*'' The enslaved negroes, however, (ignorant 
as he supposed them,) w r ere not unobservant of this favour- 
able combination of concurring circumstances. Receiving 
assurances of the co-operation or connivance of the people 
of colour, a band of them in the northern part of the island 
secretly planned a sudden revolt. 

" It was on the morning of the 23d of August, just before day," 
(says the historian,) " that a general alarm and consternation 

* It maybe again remarked, that it is a very extraordinary mistake, espe- 
cially in members of Congress, whom we might suppose to have been better 
informed, in supposing that the expression, people of colour, comprehends the 
negroes. Throughout the whole history of the misfortunes of St. Domingo, 
an obvious distinction is constantly made between the people of colour and 
the negroes or blacks. The people of colour are exclusively the sangS'tnelecs, 
the ruulattoes. 



53 



spread throughout the town of the Cape. The inhabitants were 
called from their beds, by persons who reported, that all the 
negro slaves in the several neighbouring parishes had revolted, 
and were, at that moment, carrying death and desolation over the 
adjoining large and beautiful plain to the north-east. The go- 
vernor, and most of the military officers on duty , assembled to- 
gether ; but the reports were so confused and contradictory, as 
to give but little credit ; when, as soon as day-li^ht began to break, 
the sudden and successive arrival, with ghastly countenances, of 
persons who had with difficulty escaped the massacre, and flown 
to the town for protection, brought a dreadful confirmation of the 
fatal tidings. 

" The rebellion first broke out on a plantation called Noe, in 
the parish of Jlcul, nine miles from the city. Twelve or fourteen 
of the ring-leaders, about the middle of the night, proceeded to 
the refining or sugar-house, and seized on a young man, the re- 
finer's apprentice, dragged him to the front of the dwelling-house, 
and there hewed him into pieces with their cutlasses ; his screams 
brought out the overseer, whom they instantly shot. The rebels 
now found their way to the apartment of the refiner, and massa- 
cred hirn in his bed. A young man, lying sick in a neighbouring 
chamber, was left apparently dead of the wounds inflicted by their 
cutlasses ; he had strength enough, however, to crawl to the next 
plantation, and relate the horrors he had witnessed. He reported, 
that all the whites of the estate which he had left were murdered, 
except only the surgeon, whom the rebels had compelled to ac- 
company them, on the idea that they might stand in need of his 
professional assistance. Alarmed by this intelligence, the persons 
to whom it was communicated, immediately sought their safety in 
flight. What became of the poor youth, I have never been in- 
formed. 

The revolters, (consisting of all the slaves belonging to that 
plantation,) proceeded to the house of a Mr. Clement, by whose 
negroes also they were immediately joined, and both he and his 
refiner were massacred. The murderer of Mr. Clement was his 
own postilion, a man to whom he had always shown great kindness. 
The other white people on this estate contrived to make their 
escape. 

" At this juncture, the negroes on the plantation of M. Flaville, 
a few miles distant, likewise rose and murdered five white per- 
sons, one of whom, (the procureur or attorney for the estate,) had 
a wife and three daughters. These unfortunate women, while 
imploring for mercy of the savages on their knees, beheld their 
husband and father murdered before their faces. For themselves, 
they were devoted to a more horrid fate, and were carried away 
captives by the assassins. 

" The approach of day-light served only to discover sights of 
horror. It was now apparent that the negroes on all the estates 



acted in concert, and a general massacre of the whites took place 
in every quarter. On some few estates, indeed, the lives of the 
women were spared, hut they were reserved only to gratify the 
brutal appetites of the ruffians ; and it is shocking to relate, that 
many of them suffered violation on the dead bodies of their hus- 
bands and fathers ! 

" The largest sugar plantation on the plain was that of Mons» 
Gallifet, situated about eight miles from the town, the negroes 
belonging to which, had always been treated with such kindness 
and liberality, and possessed so many advantages, that it became 
a proverbial expression, among the lower white people, in speak- 
ing of any man's good fortune, to say il est heureux comme wi ne- 
gre de Gallifet, (he is as happy as one of Gallifet's negroes.) M, 
Odelue, the attorney, or agent, for this plantation, was a member 
of the general assembly, and being fully persuaded that the ne- 
groes belonging to it would remain rirm to their obedience, deter- 
mined to repair thither to encourage them in opposing the insur- 
gents ; to which end he desired the assistance of a few soldiers 
from the town-guard, which was granted him. He proceeded 
accordingly ; but in approaching the estate, to his surprise and 
grief, he found all the negroes in arms on the side of the rebels, 
and (horrid to tell ! !) their standard was the body of an infant , 
which they had recently impaled on a stake ! M. Odelue had ad- 
vanced too far to retreat undiscovered, and both he and a friend 
that accompanied him, with most of the soldiers, were killed with- 
out mercy. Two or three only of the patrole escaped by flight ; 
and conveyed the dreadful tidings to the inhabitants of the town." 

Let us remark here, that this strong instance of ingrati- 
tude, as it ought not to be an encouragement to any slave- 
holder, inclinable to the principles of the Amis des Noirs, to 
flatter himself, that by lenient and gentle usage of his slaves 
he will secure safety to himself in the day of massacre ; so 
also on the other hand it ought not to operate as a discou- 
ragement to a good master in treating his slaves with all that 
kindness and humanity consistent with the preservation of 
subordination and obedience. It is an indispensable moral 
duty, incumbent on every slave-holder, to provide for his 
slaves an ample sufficiency of both food and clothing, the 
latter including the bedding upon which they are to take 
their nocturnal repose after the fatigues of their daily labour. 
These duties are not sufficiently attended to, in the State of 
Maryland, Too many slave-holders of every class of so- 
ciety in this State, finding that the profits of agriculture do 
not keep pace with the introduction of the refined luxuries 
of life, in the use of which they copy from their superiors, 
and those again from the wealthy merchants in the cities, 



55 



seek to increase their funds by curtailing necessaries to their 
negroes. Would Protection Societies, as they are called, 
instead of combining to obstruct the transportation of these 
coloured people, or negroes, out of the State, and thereby 
preventing a public good, whether they be entitled by the 
laws to freedom or not, — would these Societies bend their 
attention to the execution of such laws as already c: : f on 
the subject, and in procuring the enactment of others more 
cogent and effective, for the same purpose, so as to compel 
masters to supply their slaves with an ample sufficiency of 
food and clothing, then indeed they would be entitled to the 
humane appellation they have assumed ; then would the 
slaves be rendered more content with their situation, and 
less disposed to insurrection, when opportunity should allure 
them to it. 

But let us listen to a few more of the horrors of the so- 
lemn lesson, which the historian of St. Domingo repeats 
to us : — 

" By this time, all or most of the white persons, that had been 
found on the several plantations, being massacred, or forced to 
seek their safety in flight, the ruffians exchanged the sword for 
the torch. The buildings and cane-fields were every where set 
on fire, and the conflagrations which were visible from the town, 
in a thousand different quarters, furnished a prospect more shock- 
ing, and reflections more dismal, than fancy can paint, or the 
powers of man describe. 

" Consternation and terror now took possession of every mind : 
and the screams of the women and children, running from door 
to door, heightened the horror of the scene. All the citizens 
took up arms, and the General Assembly vested the Governor 
with the command of the National Guards, requesting him to give 
such orders as the urgency of the case seemed to demand. 

" To such of the distant parishes as were open to communica- 
tion, either by land or by sea, notice of the revolt had been trans- 
mitted within a few hours after advice of it was received at the 
Cape ; and the whjte inhabitants of many of those parishes had 
therefore found time to establish camps, and form a chain of posts, 
which for a short time seemed to prevent the rebellion spreading 
beyond the Northern Province. Two of those camps, however, 
one at Grande Rivierre, the other at Dondon, were attacked bv 
the negroes, (who were here openly joined by the mulattoes,) 
and forced with great slaughter. At Dondon the whites main- 
tained the contest for seven hours : but were overpowered by 
the infinite disparity of numbers, and compelled to give way, 
with the loss of upwards of one hundred of their body. The sur- 
vivors took refuge in the Spanish territory. 



50 



:: These two Districts, therefore, and the whole of the rich and 
extensive plain of the Cape, together with the contiguous moun- 
tains, were now wholly abandoned to the ravages of the enemy ; 
and the cruelties which they exercised, uncontrolled, on such of 
the miserable whites as fell into their hands, cannot be remem- 
bered without horror, nor reported in terms strong enough to 
convey a proper idea of their atrocity, 

" They seized Mr. Blen, an officer of the police, and having 
nailed him alive to one of the gates of his plantation, chopped 
off his limbs, one by one, with an axe. 

" A poor man named Robert, a carpenter by trade, endeavour- 
ing to conceal himself from the notice of the rebels, was disco- 
vered in his hiding-place ; and the savages declared that he 
should die in the way of his occupation ; accordingly they bound 
him between two boards, and deliberately sawed him asunder. 

" M. Cardineau, a planter of Grande Rivierre, had two natural 
sons by a black woman. He had manumitted them in their in- 
fancy, and bred them up with great tenderness. They both 
joined in the revolt ; and when their father endeavoured to di- 
vert them from their purpose, by soothing language and pecu^ 
niary offers, they took his money, and then stabbed him to the 
heart. 

" All the white, and even the mulatto children whose fathers 
had not joined in the revolt, were murdered without exception, 
frequently before the eyes or clinging to the bosoms of their mo- 
thers. Young women of all ranks were first violated by a whole 
troop of barbarians, and then generally put to death. Some of 
them were indeed reserved for the further gratification of the lust 
of the savages, and others had their eyes scooped out with a knife. 

" In the Parish of Limbe, at a place called the Great Ravine, a 
venerable planter, the father of two beautiful young ladies, was 
tied down by a savage ring-leader of a band, who ravished the 
eldest daughter in his presence, and delivered over the youngest 
to one of his followers : their passion being satisfied, they 
slaughtered both the father and the daughters. 

" To detail the various conflicts, skirmishes, massacres, and 
scenes of slaughter, which this exterminating war produced, were 
to offer a disgusting and frightful picture ; a combination of horr 
rors, wherein we should behold cruelties unexampled in the an- 
nals of mankind ; human blood poured forth in torrents ; the, 
earth blackened with ashes, and the air tainted with pestilence. 
It was computed, that within two months after the revolt first be- 
gan, upwards of two thousand white persons, of all conditions and 
ages, had been massacred ; — that one hundred and eighty sugar 
plantations, and about nine hundred coffee, cotton, and indigo set- 
tlements, had been destroyed, (the buildings thereon being con- 
sumed by fire,) and one thousand two hundred christian families 
reduced from opulence to such a state of misery as to depend altQ- 



j7 



gether for their clothing and sustenance on public and private 
charity. 1 ' 

Should it now be asked by one of our Amis dcs Noirs of 
Maryland — For what purpose have you thus exhibited to us 
this detail of the horrors of St. Domingo ? IS T o man would 
regret and shudder at these horrors, more than i should. 
Cannot the emancipation of the blacks be effected without 
these dreadful consequences ? No, sir : is my reply. \ ou 
yourself acknowledge, that you neither wish nor expect an 
amalgamation or intermixture of the races — the whi 
the blacks : that the greatest personal misfortune, b 
could befal you, would be to see your son or daugbti r- 
ried to a negro. But whence do you dcrhe this irrational 
and unfounded reluctance to such an union, if, as your £i«;at 
prototype, the christian Gregoire, has observed, u k is mere 
prejudice to ihink, that the colour of a man's skin is to keep 
the children of the same parent at an immense distance 
from each other ?" If you cannot conquer this silly " pre- 
judice,*' then, sir, you must accede to some plan or policy to 
avoid such a consequence. If you persist in your princi- 
ples of emancipation of these blacks, and at the same time 
in your aversion to an intermixture or amalgamation with 
them, you reduce yourself to this dilemma— either you must 
exterminate their whole race, or you must transport them 
out of the country. Which alternative, I pray you, is the 
most consistent with humanity ? But the preceding extracts, 
relative to St. Domingo, amply demonstrate, that the suppo- 
sition of an intermixture or amalgamation of the two races, 
which must necessarily require ages to accomplish, is a mere 
dream. Long before this could be effected, an extermina- 
tion of one or the other race, must necessarily happen. It 
clearly follows then, that a gradual transportation of the 
blacks and coloured people out of the country, is the prefer- 
able alternative, which policy dictates to these States, in 
order to avoid the dreadful misfortunes of St. Domingo, 

These extracts are intended also to form a lesson to our 
Amis des Noirs. Are they not pursuing the same course, 
and treading directly in the steps of that famous society of 
Paris ? Do they not contend, that " all men are born, and 
continue, equal in their rights ?" that both the negroes and 
people of colour, (the muiattoes,) are entitled to their free- 
dom ; that it is not lawful for a christian to hold them in 
bondage ; and that it is the bounden duty of every man im- 
mediately to emancipate his slaves, let the consequences be 
what they may. What is this but Robespierre's sentiment— 

? 



58 

" perish the colonies, rather than sacrifice one iota of our 
principles ?" — Perish the southern States, rather than sacri- 
fice one iota of our principles, reiterate our Amis des Nuirs, 
But they pretend to add, that, when they are advocates for 
the manumission of slaves, they do not contend for their 
assumption of any political rights. What contemptible, ridi- 
culous evasion ! The national assembly professed to confer 
the right of election only on the people of colour, the free 
mulattoes, and not on the negro-slaves. But, when the dam 
was broke, who was to stay the torrent ? Indeed, when full 
emancipation is granted to all negroes as well as coloured 
people, where is argument or reason to be found in denying 
to them these rights of election and representation ? Slavery 
seems to be an indefinite term — 

" Like Wit, much talkM of, not to be defined." 

When the British parliament were about to tax us without 
being represented therein, it was said, that they meant to 
make us slaves. Will not the negroes, when advanced to 
the enjoyment of their civil rights, say, that they are still 
slaves, unless they have a share in making the laws which 
are to bind them ? There would be no end to the full mean- 
ing of the word liberty, until it was synonymous with perfect 
equality. Our Amis des Noirs are, therefore, solicited to 
pause in their career of a fanciful emancipation of the whole 
human race. As most of them exhibit themselves in the 
shape of religious zealots, they generally insist upon their 
duty to God's commands, as paramount to all human consi- 
derations. But, what horrible sacrifices and extravagancies 
have not been attempted to be justified under this principle? 
In the time of the reformation, a fanatic reformer cut off his 
brother's hand, and told his father and mother, that God 
commanded him to do so. When the extravagancies of re- 
ligion threaten the peace and safety of the community, they 
they are to be curbed, like other vices ; and it is in vain for 
a man to allege his religious principles in justification of any 
wild system of belief, which he chooses to set up. Men, 
who progagate new doctrines, even of religion, ought to be 
answerable to the laws for the consequences of those doc- 
trines, where they evidently lead to a disorganization of soci- 
ety. When the priests of Europe, a century or two ago, 
maintained the rightfulness and lawfulness of taking away 
the life of an excommunicated monarch by any practicable 
means, were they not, in the estimation of every good and 
conscientious man, viewed as equally criminal as the assassin 



59 



who personally did the act ? Would not the priest Gregoire, 
if asked at this day, (for he is said to be still alive,) why he 
instigated the mulattoes of St. Domingo to commit the mur- 
ders they did, deny, as our Amis des Noirs would, that he 
encouraged them to do any such thing ? Yet, who can read 
the history of that ill-fated country, and doubt of his being 
the principal instigator of those horrible doings ? It is one 
of the great attributes of impartial history, that at one day 
or other she is sure to drag such hypocrites or maniacs from 
their dark hiding-places. Let our Amis des Noirs take their 
choice of these epithets. If ever the misfortunes of St. 
Domingo befall these southern States, (and it is too proba- 
ble that they will,) the muse of history will assuredly paint 
them in their true colours. 



CO 



SECTION III. 

itfs to the Expediency or Practicability of the Mtasurt* 

Much time and trouble has been saved to the author of 
this tract, by the report of the committee of the House of 
Representatives of Congress, to whom was referred the Me- 
morial of this " Society for the Colonization of the Free Peo- 
ple of Colour," &c. The general proposition suggested by 
the committee in that report, of incorporating the people of 
colour to be transported from these States, (among whom, 
as we understand, negroes are meant to be included,) with 
the British colony of Sierra Leone, seems to be the only 
practicable plan or scheme, which, under all circumstances, 
could be adopted. The report very properly rejects the 
proposition of colonizing them within the limits of the United 
States. The reasons against this proposal are so forcibly 
stated in that report, (which has become public,) and indeed 
are so obvious to every reflecting mind, that they need not 
be stated, that " Africa is the country, which, in the order of 
providence, seems to have been appropriated to that dis- 
tinct family of mankind, and presents the fittest asylum for 
them," the committee have propounded two important pro- 
positions, the alternative of which must be selected. 

" Will it be expedient to attempt the establishment of a new 
colony in Africa ? 

" Or, to make to Great Britain a proposal to receive the emi- 
grants from the United States into her colony of Sierra Leone ?" 

The committee have most judiciously recommended the 
adoption of the latter of those two propositions. Against 
the former, they have stated a few forcible reasons. " The 
two distinct and independent colonies," they say," established 
and protected by two independent powers, would naturally 
imbibe the spirit and distinctions of their patrons and pro- 
tectors, and put in jeopardy the peace and prosperity of 
both. Even the simple fact of separate independence would 
eventually tend to produce collisions and wars between the 
two establishments, (unless, indeed, they were far removed 
from each other,) and perhaps defeat the further humane 
and exalted views of those who projected them." To which 
might be added many other equally powerful arguments 
against the attempt to establish a distinct independent colo- 



uy, under the patronage and protection of these Slates. In 
the first place, it wouid be dillicult to select any part of the 
western coast of Africa, as a Nile for a colony, which is not 
already either seated or claimed by some European power ; 
or where, perhaps, a peaceable settlement could be made 
safe from the annoyance of the native negroes. It ought to 
be remembered, that " the people of colour," though ne- 
groes or mulattocs, who are to be colonized, are civilized 
people, and will not easily amalgamate with the natives, or 
rather the natives with them. Considerable expense, as 
well as military force, would be necessary for many years 
to protect this distinct colony. As to a place on the coast of 
Africa, where a colony, distinct from that of Sierra Leone, 
might be seated, some suggestions have been lately made by 
the celebrated Paul Cuffee, who is either a free negro or a 
free person of colour in New-England, of some property and 
some education, (in comparison with most others of his race,) 
who has made several voyages to Sierra Leone, and who 
appears to have been consulted on the present occasion. In 
his latter, dated January 8th, 1317, he mentions u the island 
Berso, which lies at the mouth of the river Gambia, three 
hundred and fifty miles northwest of Siena Leone." This 
place, he observes, ¥ is said to be very fertile, but unhealthy 
to northern constitutions." From the best account, though 
not a very modern one, that has ever been published, of the 
river Gambia,* it would appear, that Paul Cuffee must have 
here meant an island on the north side of the Gambia, at 
the mouth thereof, called Bird or Broken island, more pro- 
perly called Broken Islands ; for, in reality, it consists of six 
or more islands forming the mouth of a river called Barsally, 
which empties into the Gambia near its mouth. The largest 
of these islands is about twelve miles long, and four miles 
broad. Some of these islands belong to the king of Barsally, 
and some of them to the king of Barrah, both of which are 
contiguous kingdoms of the Mundingoe race of negroes. 
These islands were, at the time our author resided there, 
thickly inhabited, with several towns thereon. In order to 
plant a colony there, it would be necessary to either expel 
or subdue the inhabitants ; in which case the islands might 
be well secured against the negroes on the main, until the 
colony might be enlarged. As to the objection he makes 
of its being " unhealthy to northern constitutions," that must 

* Moore's ft Travels into the inland parts cf Africa. 11 He was one of 
the factors of the English African company, from 1730 to 1735. 



62 



be considered as imaginary merely, at least as to negroes, 
who seem by nature fitted for hot climates. The mouth of 
the Gambia is in J3 deg. 20 min. north latitude, nearly on 
a parallel with the island Barbadoes, in the West-Indies. 
Moore observes, " four months in the year are unhealthy, 
and very tedious to those who are come out of a colder cli- 
mate ; but the perpetual spring, where you commonly see 
ripe fruit and blossoms on the same tree, makes some amends 
for that inconvenience. The air is ver} pleasant and re- 
freshing." These were inconveniencies experienced by 
English constitutions ; but, let it be remembered, that En- 
glish constitutions made the same complaints against Mary- 
land and Virginia, on their first settlement therein. The 
mouth of the Gambia is also about four or six degrees more 
to the northwest than Sierra Leone, where the colony, al- 
ready planted there, seems to have experienced little incon- 
venience from climate. Another site for a colony, mentioned 
by Paul Cuffee, is " the river Sherborough, in about fifty 
leagues southeast of Sierra Leone. I have heard," says he, 
" said river much recommended by John Carezell, a citizen 
of Sierra Leone." In an authentic, work, published about 
the year 1760,* there is the following description of the 
river Sherborough. 

" At the mouth of the river stands an island, by the English 
called Tcherbro, by the French Cerbera ; stretching southeast 
and northwest along the coast, and forming a large bay between 
it and the continent.f On the west point of Scherbro are three 
small islands, in a direct line with it, to which the English have 
given the name of the Plantain islands, from the quantity of that 
fruit they produce. As to the island Scherbro, it extends ten 
miles southeast, producing great abundance of rice, maize, yams, 
bananas, potatoes, Indian figs, ananas, citrons, oranges, water- 
melons, the nut called kola, with a variety of other fruits and roots. 
Fine pearls are found in an oyster, bred on the shore ; but the 
fishing for them is dangerous, on account of the numbers of croco- 
diles, alligators, and sharks, that infest all the mouth of the river." 

This favourable description of Sherborough seems to cor- 
respond with what Paul Cuffee learnt of it at Sierra Leone. 
Were it desirable to undertake the settlement of a distinct 
colony 5 independent of that of Sierra Leone, and under the 

* The Mod. Univ. Hist. Vol. XVII. pa. 229. 

| In Bovieri's map of Negro-laud, or the middle parts of Africa, this island 
is laid down, as commencing its southeast extremity opposite to the south 
cape of the river, and stretching northwest across the mouth of the river) 
thereby "forming the large bay," above mentioned, with the continent on the 
north side of the river. 



63 



protection and patronage of the United States, these two 
situations are at tbe Gambia and the Sherborough, as he has 
very properly observed, " would do for small beginnings." 
A large island, or an extensive peninsula, would seem to be 
the most eligible sites for commencing a colony, on account 
of their convenience for defence against the attacks of the 
natives.* Like the peninsulas of Jamestown, in Virginia, 
and Manhattoes, in New-York, they might each form the 
germs of a colony, which might in time extend itself into a 
large and populous state. 

Cuffee has mentioned also, though with no particular re- 
commendation, 44 the river Congo, which lies near the equa- 
tor ; the population is said to be great, and the soil fertile." 
If, by " the river Congo," he means the Zaire, the largest 
river in the kingdom of Congo, and which is said also to be 
one of the largest in Africa, there are numerous objections 
to any attempt to fix a colony either on that river or any 
where within the kingdom of Congo, which formerly includ- 
ed, and still does by name, not only Congo Proper, but the 
adjacent kingdoms of Angola and Loango. Of the former 
of the two last mentioned, to wit, Angola, the Portuguese 
have not only become complete sovereigns, but in some 
measure have colonized with their countrymen, a very ex- 
tensive tract of country therein ; having for their capital the 
city of San Paulo de Loanda, pleasantly situated on the de- 
clivity of a hill near the sea-coast, and opposite to an island 
called Loanda, which is about fifteen miles in length and 
three in breadth, and which island forms a commodious ha- 
ven for their ships. This city was founded by the Portu- 
guese as far back as the year 1578, and was reported to 

* It may be proper to state here, that about the time of the first settling the 
present colony of Sierra Leone, (1791,) an attempt was made by the English 
to settle another colony of blacks on an island called Bidam, situated at the 
mouth of the Gambia, and which must have been one of the broken islands 
beforementioned. It seems, that the natives of the shore opposite to this 
island had from time immemorial made their annual rice plantations thereon. 
They therefore considered the arrival and possession of the new settlers as 
an unjust intrusion upon their natural rights. A dispute arose about it, 
which eventuated in the massacre of the principal part of the new colonists 
by the natives. The governor, (Dalrymple,) with the few remaining of the 
colonists, escaped to the settlement at Sierra Leone ; since which, it does 
not appear, that a second attempt has been made by the English to fix a 
colony at Gambia. It may be added also, that not long after the first settle- 
ment at Sierra Leone, the colony there was more than once furiously attacked 
and invaded by the neighbouring natives ; but the colony was so fortunate as 
to repel them ; and from the latest accounts, it seems to remain upon a friendly 
footing with them, frequently hiring and employing the natives as labourers 
and agriculturists. 



64 



have, even at the latter end of the seventeenth century, 
" three thousand houses belonging to the Portuguese, all 
built of stone and mortar, and covered with tiles, and most 
of them very sumptuously and richly furnished. The streets 
are straight, wide, and regular ; the convents and their cha- 
pels neat and decent, and suitable to their different orders.'* 
It may be proper to add, that not only the greater part of 
Angola, a country of not less than three hundred square 
miles, is in the actual possession of the Portuguese, but that 
the kingdoms of Congo Proper and Loango are tributary to 
them. It is, therefore, to be strongly inferred, that the 
Portuguese would not suffer any colony of blacks to be set- 
tled within any of the countries of that coast, which are in 
subjection to them ; especially as they have long since en- 
forced the Christian religion, in the Catholic form, upon all 
the natives within their influence, with whom our Methodist 
negroes would but illy assort. 

Additional reasons present themselves against any attempt 
to settle a colony on the Congo river. Very late intelli- 
gence, respecting that river, has demonstrated, that it would 
be totally unfit for our proposed purpose. Two expeditions 
were fitted out from England during the last year, (1816,) 
at great expense, and with very sanguine expectations, to 
explore the interior of Africa, with a particular view of 
settling the question relative to the Niger. An idea having 
prevailed, (with which the unfortunate Mungo Park, with 
others, was strongly impressed,) that the Niger, modernly 
called, according to him, the Joliba, and the great internal 
African sea, disembogue themselves by the Congo into the 
southern ocean, it was determined, that one expedition 
should proceed to the mouth of the Congo, and ascend 
that river, while the other, by following nearly in Park's 
track, by the river Gambia, should reach the Niger, and by 
descending that mysterious stream, hope to meet their bre- 
thren coming up the Congo, in the heart of Africa. " The 
expedition up the Congo, under the command of Captain 
Tuckey, who was accompanied by several gentlemen of 
science, qualified to make every useful observation, arrived 
in two ships at the mouth of the Congo, on the third of July, 
1816. They here embarked on board a sloop so construct- 
ed as to draw little water, in which they ascended the river 
about 120 miles. They here found the current so rapid, 
and the bottom so rocky, that they could proceed no further 



(jo 



by water.* They then landed, and proceeded 220 miles 
along the bank of the river, in which distance they passed 
four cataracts, when sickness and the want of supplies com- 
pelled them to retrace their steps. They all succeeded in 
regaining their ships on the 2d of October, but in such an 
exhausted state, that of the fifty-six persons who landed, 
eighteen, including the captain, lieutenant, and all the scien- 
tific part of the expedition, died in a short time after they 
returned on board. Capt. Tuckey's Journal was continued 
to the day of his death, and it is already advertised as being 
in the press for publication in London, with the Notes of the 
gentlemen who accompanied him. It is said, not to hold 
out the least encouragement for prosecuting the research 
further. Beyond that of determining the geographical pro- 
blem of the course of the Niger, it does not promise a single 
advantage. If the Congo be a continuation of that river, 
it cannot be useful for the purpose of navigation, on account 
of its numerous rapids and cataracts. The country is so 
miserable that it cannot engage the attention of the merchant. 
It is thinly peopled, and the inhabitants are of the lowest 
description of human beings — cowardly, cruel, and indolent. 
A very small quantity of grain is produced, and th^tby the 
labour of the women. The soil is hard and steril."t This 
seems to be enough to place the Congo out of the present 
question. 

We will conclude our remarks on the different sites for a 
colony, as proposed by Paul Cuffee, with that which he- 
seems, most strongly, but most extraordinarily, to recom- 
mend. " But were there," says he, " a willingness for a ge- 
neral removal of the people of colour, and the Cape of 
Good Hope could be obtained, I think it looks most favour- 
able." He surely must have known, that a very populous 
and extensive colony of white people — the Dutch, (now in 
subjection to the British government,) are in the actual pos- 
session of what may be properly termed, the Cape of Good 
Hope. The British nation have found it so convenient a 
half-way house, if it may be so called, to their immense 
East-India possessions, that they will not, in all probability, 
be induced to relinquish any part of it, especially to a colony 
of negroes, whose neighbourhood would be, without doubt, 

* This corresponds with former geographical accounts of the Congo. ]\"o 
wind is strong enough, even at its mouth, to force a ship against the rapidity 
of its current. It is navigated by small craft, along its shores, by means of 
the eddies of the river. Mod. Univ. Hist. vol. xvi. p. 36. 

t The North American Review, for May, 1817. 

9 



as offensive to their Dutch colonists, as they would be to 
our republican American citizens. From the latest ac- 
counts also of the Dutch colonists at the Cape, they have 
extended themselves so far into the interior countries, and 
pressed upon the Hottentots so much, as to render those na- 
tives, who border on the Dutch frontiers, extremely uneasy 
and restive ; much in the same manner, as we Americans are 
gradually shoving the Indians in a retrograde migration from 
their ancient settlements. It is not probable, therefore, that 
" were there a willingness for a general removal of the peo- 
ple of colour," they would be permitted by either the Bri- 
tish, Dutch, or Hottentots, to settle a colony any where in 
their neighbourhood. 

But to probe this question more immediately to the bot- 
tom, the remark ought to be borne in mind, however harsh it 
may feel to our national vanity, that these United States are 
not yet arrived at that acme of power and greatness, when 
it would befit us, to be establishing distant colonies, to be 
maintained, supported, and protected by the strong arm of 
our sovereignty. Should the reader of this be ever so high 
toned a republican, with a mind filled to the brim with ideas 
of the glory and greatness of these United States, like a 
Maryland or Virginia grog-drinker at a country election, who 
struts and boasts that he can whip any man in the world, he 
is solicited for a moment to be calm and quiet, while the re- 
mark is made, — that notwithstanding we have declared our- 
selves independent as to our government, and are really and 
truly so, and it would be impossible for either of the two 
most powerful nations of Europe, even our old mother Bri- 
tain, to conquer and subdue us, yet the people of these 
United States, are as yet, in truth and reality, nothing more 
themselves — than colonists — nothing more : strong, indeed, 
to resist an invasion of their fire-sides, but, in every other 
respect, weak and feeble. Notwithstanding the most op- 
pressive taxation of the agricultural part of our population, 
in order to bolster up some two or three miserable attempts 
at manufactures, we are not only totally incapable of fur- 
nishing the necessary articles of clothing and implements of 
agriculture to a colony, but in case of a war are unable to 
supply ourselves with such necessaries. A colony planted 
under such patronage must perish. Besides, we are most 
certainly incapable of affording defence to any distant colo- 
ny whatever, especially to one planted on the other side of 
the Atlantic. It ought to be remembered, that this defence 
can be afforded only through the instrumentality of a navy. 



But, should a war occur between us and Great-Britain, how 
could any means of defence be sent to a colony on the < oast 
of Africa ? I know that much gasconade would be replied, 
as usual, to such a question ; — as how, that ship to snip, we 
can whip any people in the world. This species r- 
ing to our tars may be useful to them in time of war, but 
with statesmen, in sober legislation, ought to find no consi- 
deration. It has been properly observed by some one in 
Congress, that, as Great-Britain in case of a war, could never 
spare more than ten or a dozen ships of the line to be kept 
on our coast, our States are competent to support a navy 
adequate to combat with so small a detachment of their na- 
val force ; and that, therefore, we may safely endeavour to 
maintain a navy to that amount for our own defence on our 
own coast. But this proves nothing as to our competency to 
keep a navy on the coast of Africa adequate to the defence 
of a colony there. Such colony would, therefore, necessa* 
rily fall into the possession or destruction of Great-Britain ; 
just as their humanity or policy might dictate. Would it 
not then be better at once to incorporate these intended ne- 
gro colonists, who are to be removed from our own shores, 
with those of the same species of people, who are already 
colonized in Africa, under the government and protection of 
the British nation, who are both willing and capable to de- 
fend them ? 

Some apprehension, however, maybe entertained, lest a 
suggestion made by the Committee of the House of Repre- 
sentatives, in their Report on this subject, at the last ses- 
sion, might be insisted upon, in our negotiation with Eng- 
land, as a sine qua non in an agreement to incorporate our 
colonists with theirs, at Sierra Leone ; that is, that these 
United States should enjoy a perpetual and unlimited " free- 
dom of commerce 5 ' with this their colony at Sierra Leone. 
Should this be insisted upon by us, it will infallibly destroy 
every probable hope of accommodation with them on the 
subject. Nor is it reasonable to require of them such a sti- 
pulation. As they have been at all ike expense of planting, 
rearing, and protecting the colony, so ought they to reap and 
enjoy all the profits and benefits to be derived from it. This 
is the grand colonial principle, to which all these English co- 
lonies, now states of America, owe their existence. It has 
been doubted, upon strong grounds of authenticity, whether 
the people of England were ever reimbursed in the enor- 
mous sums of money, which the planting, rearing, and pro- 
tecting these colonies cost them : and that our independence 



08 



was declared before this debt of natural justice was paid. 
Be that as it may, an exclusive colonial commerce, however 
it may wear the appearance of niggardly monopoly, is just 
and proper ; as much so as that the man, who at this day, 
sits down and clears a plantation in the State of Indiana, 
should be exclusively entitled to the profits arisiilg from it. 
It is to be hoped, therefore, that our negotiators will not be 
instructed to insist upon such an article of stipulation. It is 
probable, that the government of Great-Britain will volun- 
tarily permit such imports into the colony, as will comport 
with their and the colony's interests ; and that those inte- 
rests will coincide with ours ; particularly in the allowance 
of the importation of all bread-stuffs. 

We beg leave here, however, to contend, that should our 
government, through mismanagement, or neglect, or other- 
wise, be so unfortunate as to fail in a negotiation with Great 
Britain in procuring the liberty of landing and incorporat- 
ing our negro colonists with theirs of Sierra Leone, yet, as 
the danger, which threatens the peace and happiness, per- 
haps the existence, of these Southern States, is imminent 
and extreme, our dernier resort must be in an attempt, of 
ourselves, to plant a colony of them some where on the 
shores of Africa. Some of the places, herein before sug- 
gested, might perhaps upon inquiry be found, in such case 
of necessity, sufficiently to answer the purpose. Mr. Jef- 
ferson, in a letter on this subject to a private friend, which 
has been lately published, bearing date " Jan. 21, 1811," has 
disclosed several important facts not before generally 
known. He states, that he " received, in the first year of 
his entering into the administration of the General Govern- 
ment, a letter from the Governor of Virginia, consulting 
him, (Mr. Jefferson.) at the request of the Legislature of 
the State, on the means of procuring some such asylum, to 
which these people might be occasionally sent. I proposed 
to him,*' (says he.) u the establishment at Sierra Leone, in 
which a private company in England had already colorized 
a number of negroes, and particularly the fugitives from 
these States, during the revolutionary war." We must 
here stop to remark, that, when Paul Cuffee, during our last 
war with England, applied to Congress for legislative au- 
thority to carry with him to Sierra Leone some negro emi- 
grants, who voluntarily desired to transport themselves to 
that colony, the application was rejected by Congress upon 
the principle, as expressed in the House by one of the mem- 
bers, — " because it was a British establishment." To do 



69 



away and silence at once all such illiberal prejudices, we 
beg leave here to refer those, who entertain such opinions, 
to that which Mr. Jefferson has just before expressed. This 
well-informed statesman had too great an understanding to 
permit, in a case of such vital importance to his native 
State, any secret animosity to the English nation, to operate 
as an impediment to so patriotic a purpose. He here, also, 
manifestly prefers an incorporation of our black coionisls 
with those of Sierra Leone, as the best expedient to relieve 
us from our dangers and difficulties. But he further pro- 
ceeds : " And at the same time I suggested, if that could not 
be obtained," (that is, if permission to incorporate our 
blacks with those of Sierra Leone, could not be obtained,) 
" some of the Portuguese possessions in South America as 
most desirable. The subsequent legislature," (that is, of the 
State of Virginia, as we may infer from what precedes,) " ap- 
proving these ideas, I wrote the ensuing year (1302) to Mr. 
King, our Minister in London, to endeavour to negotiate 
with the Sierra Leone company, and induce them to receive 
such of those people as might be colonized thither. He 
opened a correspondence with Mr. Wilberforce, and Mr. 
Thornton, Secretary of the Company, on the subject ; and 
in 1803, I received through Mr. King the result.* The ef- 
fort, which I made with Portugal to obtain an establishment 
for them within their colonies, proved also abortive." Mr. 
Jefferson has not stated the inducements he had to make his 
application to Portugal on this subject. Fie had at the 
time, without doubt, some justifiable reasons for such, an 
application. The causes, which have been herein before 
suggested, such as would most probably induce the Portu- 
guese to refuse the admission of negro colonists into their 
possessions on the coast of Africa, would in some measure 
operate also against admitting them into their colonies in 
Brazil. They have not, as it appears, readily assented as 
yet, to the British propositions of abolishing the slave-trade ; 
and their large possessions in Angola have hitherto furnished 
them with an abundance of negro slaves for their colonies in 
Brazil, They would not, therefore, probably ever assent 

* To this passage the following note is subjoined in the original publica- 
tion of this letter in the National Intelligencer, of April lu, 1817 : "Note, 
by the communicator — which was unfavourable, owing to circumstances which 
do not exist 1 at the present time." What those " circumstances" were, is not 
stated by the editor, or in the letter. It may, therefore, be hoped, that as 
they do not now exist, a second application may be more successful ; espe- 
cially, if not clogged with unnecessary demands, such as a right of "free 
commerce 1 ' to the colony, 



7d 



to have a free colony of blacks transplanted into their 
American territories. 

But, after all that has been said on the choice of a place. 
to which we may send these colonists, the most formidable 
difficulty perhaps still remains to be surmounted. u They 
will never consent to leave this country as was remarked, 
with too much probable truth, at the time of the formation 
of this Society at Washington.* What then ? Are we to 
hazard the future happiness, nay existence, of all our South- 
ern States, through a squeamishness in depriving those ne- 
groes and people of colour, who have been already manu- 
mitted, of their civil right of residence among us, when we 
keep the greater part of their species still in slavery, and the 
whole of them without the enjoyment of any political right 
whatever ? Much will be said, without doubt, by our obsti- 
nate Amis des Noirs, on the cruelty of transporting, by force, 
any individual human being from his native soil and from 
his dearest relatives. To silence the clamours of these pre- 
tended philanthropists, it has been very properly declared 
at the formation of this Society, that no intention of trans- 
porting any person of colour by force has been contemplated. 
I shall beg leave, however, as an individual, (being totally 
unconnected with and unknown to the Society,) to express 
my Opinion and avow myself an advocate, for using force in 
some cases, where neither justice would be violated nor hu- 
manity wounded. Our state-prisons, or penitentiaries, are 
filled to overflowing with criminals of different kinds ; a con- 
siderable portion of whom is said to consist of negroes and 
people of colour. In the Southern States, some evil is sup- 
posed to result from this intermixture. The white man, 
thus consigned to the same punishment in the same apart- 
ment with the negro, ceases to cherish in future any regard 
to character. When they are dismissed at the expiration of 
this confinement, desperate in respect of character, the mo- 
ral influence of the opinion of the world, the strongest of all 
human inducements, has lost its effect, and they re-enter im- 
mediately on their former courses of life. A separation of 
these criminals of different colour, it is supposed, would pro- 
duce a beneficial effect. No mode of separation presents 
itself as being so effectual as the transportation of black con- 
victs to some other country, instead of confinement in a pe- 
nitentiary. The most populous and polished nations of Eu- 
rope have, in a variety of instances, adopted this usage : 



* See Note IV. in the Appendix 



71 



particularly the English nation, with whom civil liberty has 
been always held in higher estimation than it is possible for 
it to be done in these United States, where the greater por* 
tion of the inhabitants are daily familiarized with domestic 
slaverv. Might it not then be proposed to the Legislatures 
of the* several States, or to that of the General Govern- 
ment where necessary, to make laws and provisions for car- 
rying into effect a system of punishment by banishment or 
transportation, in all cases of offences committed by negroes 
or people of colour, where such punishment would be pro- 
portionate to the crime ? In England, whose laws are for 
the most part our own, this has been extended to all felonies 
whatever, whether within or without clergy. To felonies 
within clergy, that is, not capital, by authorizing the court, 
by statute, to commute by order of court the punishment of 
burning in the hand or whipping, into transportation to some 
of his majesty's plantations in America, but since the inde- 
pendence of these plantations, to " the eastern coast of New 
South Wales." To felonies without clergy, that is, accord- 
ing to the theory of the law of England, capital offences, 
for which the punishment of death might have been inflicted, 
by inserting in the charter of pardon a condition of transpor- 
tation, as in cases of the felonies within clergy beforemen- 
tioned. The theory is both just and humane. Just, be- 
cause the offender, who commits crimes, which, by the laws 
of his society, arc deserving of solitary confinement and la- 
bour for a great portion of his life, has rendered himself unfit 
to be a member of that society any longer ; and it is, there- 
fore, humane, instead of such confinement and labour, to 
restore him at once to liberty, in a country remote from 
that which he has so greatly injured and offended. 

But we shall be told, perhaps, by one of the Amis des 
Koirs, who talk much, but seem to know little of the nature 
of true liberty under wholesome laws, that it is not consist- 
ent with the genius of our republic, that a freeman of any 
kind, even a free black man, should be exiled and banished 
from this glorious beloved country. But, for the information 
of such zealots, be it known to them, that this punishment of 
exile has been heretofore deemed peculiarly appropriate to 
republican governments. The digrace and misfortune of 
being banished from the blessings of such a government, has 
been supposed to operate in terrorem from the prevention of 
crimes in such a manner as to have caused ft to be adopted 
by some of the most celebrated republics that ever existed in 
the world. The well-known punishment of QstmcisTn, prac- 



72 



tiscd by one of the most civilized and polished of the anciern 
republics, that of Athens, is too familiar to every smatterer 
in Grecian history to need explanation. In the best times 
of the Roman republic, also, when Tully spoke and wrote, 
th, \ allowed of exile; that is. by the interdiction of tire and 
water, the condemned person was obliged to leave his conn- 
try. To which mu\ be added also, as an example of greater 
authority, perhaps, wkfa our statesmen, that the late glorious 
French republic, when their executioners complained of 
being tired with cutting olf the hands of their citizens, 
changed the law into deportation to America. It cannot, 
therefore, be a solid objection against our proposed trans- 
portation of negro convicts, that our republican principles 
oppose such an attempt to deprive our free black citizens of 
their civil right of residence among us ; nor does the clauses 
in our Maryland declaration of rights, which declares, t; that 
no free man ought to be exiled, but by the judgment of his 
peers or by the law of the land," affect the cause 5 for, it is 
not proposed to send them away without trial or conviction, 
and a special u law of the land" to be made for that purpose. 
It may not, perhaps, be unnecessary to add also, that this 
clause, just quoted, is but a literal copy from the English 
Bill of Rights, transferred into our State constitution by the 
framers of it : and it never was supposed by the best English 
expositors of their laws, that the statutes of transportation of 
convicts in any manner contravened the above clause in 
their bill of rights. 

I would go still further towards a compulsory gradual re- 
moval of this negro or coloured race of people from our 
country. I see no impropriety in permitting every owner 
of a slave, who may be provoked to it by the refractory dis- 
obedience of such slave, or by the dissatisfaction with his 
dishonest character, to send such slave, together with, and 
in the same manner, as the convicts beforementioned shall 
be sent to the colony of Sierra Leone, or to such colony as 
shall be planted by the United States for the preceding pur- 
poses. It is now lawful, and very properly so, for the own- 
ers of slaves in Maryland, and I believe in Virginia, to trans- 
port their slaves to some of the other States, when such 
slaves prove refractory or have committed some enormous 
crime, which renders their stay incompatible with the safety 
of their owner. In the progress of refinement of manners 
among us, it has become too grating and harrowing to the 
feelings of a humane man, for him to debase his mind so much 
as to be himself his own executioner of the corporeal pun- 



73 



ishment of his slaves, or even to stand by while it is executed 
under his direction, to that degree which subordination and 
necessary discipline require ; nor docs severity of punish- 
ment seem to answer the purpose of correction ; for, when 
it is intlicted even to a moderate degree, the incensed slave 
takes the first opportunity of becoming a fugitive to one of 
the " free States," as they call them, and the owner loses 
his property. Transportation from one State to another is 
still, therefore, very properly allowed ; and, if so allowed, 
there can be little diiference in permitting such owner, in 
such cases, to transport such refractory slave either to Sierra 
Leone, or to such colony as our United States shall plant. 
The slave would be benefited by being immediately entitled 
to his freedom in another part of the world, instead of being 
sold to slavery into another State ; and tiie cruelty of sepa- 
rating him from his relations w r ould not be greater in the 
one case than in the other. 

It may, perhaps, be expected, that some further remarks 
should be here added, on the practical mode of conveying 
these people to Sierra Leone, or the destined site of their 
colony. This part of the subject, in its details, must be left 
to the wisdom of our statesmen and legislators. That it is 
practicable, no man will doubt; since it has been carried 
into effect by other nations, whose example we might copy. 
In the cases of compulsory emigration, the business would 
seem to belong in an appropriate manner to the legislatures 
of the several and individual States whom it concerned ; for 
we may suppose, that the New-England States, not being 
immediately interested, would be unwilling to make it a 
general and national expense. It is therefore supposed, that 
the States of Virginia and Maryland, and such others as 
choose so to do, might each, at their own expense, cause a 
ship to be fitted cut annually, or whenever occasion de- 
manded, for the transportation of all such negroes or coloured 
people as should be convicted of crimes, or compelled by 
their owners to emigrate. As to criminals, this would ope- 
rate in the nature of a gaol-delivery. Instead of blending 
them with whites in penitentiaries, they would be at once 
liberated, and placed, as we might suppose, in a more eligi- 
ble situation ; where they might become useful to themselves 
and to their new adopted country ; and never more, either 
of themselves or their posterity, to be a curse to the land 
which they had left. 

Although we have just admitted, that the necessary ex- 
pense, to be hereby incurred, would properly belong to the 

10 



74 

legislature of each individual State, to be provided for ; yet, 
it must be contended, that wherever the aid of the general 
government, or legislature of the United States, is requisite, 
either in diplomacy or legislation, to carry into effect such 
salutary regulations, it cannot either justly or conditionally, 
be withheld. It is one of the expressly enumerated duties 
of Congress, "to provide for the general welfare of the United 
States." It would not be reasonable, nor has it been the 
usage, to confine this provision for the general welfare to 
those cases only wherein «. very State in the Union had obvi- 
ously an interest. Small, indeed, would be the business of 
each session of the national legislature were it literally con- 
fined to this sense of the words, " general welfare for, scarcely 
a subject could be proposed, on which the national legisla- 
ture was to act, in which it might not be said, that some one 
or two of the States had no manifest interest. But can it, 
with any kind of truth, be averred, that the general welfare 
of ail the States of the Union is not involved in a disposition 
of the negro population of those States, where such popula- 
tion is so considerable as to threaten the peace, if not the 
existence, of those States ? Are the northern States so en- 
tirely uninterested in the fate of the southern ? Suppose a 
Haytian revolution should be accomplished in all those south 
of Pennsylvania. Would the Union continue ? Are the states- 
men of New- York, who have ridiculed this truly philanthro- 
pic association of Washington, already prepared to fraternize 
with the sable legislators of the then regenerated southern 
States ? Surely, there could not be presented to our national 
legislature a more momentous subject for its deliberations. 
What comparision could there be betwen the requisition of 
Canada or the Florida, or the fifteen millions given for Loui- 
siana, with the total annihilation of all the white population 
of at least seven out of these eighteen United States ? Let 
it be remembered, that it would not be a mere change of 
political party ; it would be a total extirpation of the exist- 
ence of a majority of the conquered, and perpetual exile to 
the remnant. Were one of these United States to be seized 
upon and withheld by a foreign enemy, would it not be the 
duty of Congress immediately to lay taxes to provide for the 
regaining the possession of it ? Are they not equally bound 
to provide against its loss ? Surely, the words " general wel- 
fare of these United States" can mean nothing, if they mean 
not either their peace, their happiness, or their existence. 



APPENDIX. 



Note L p. 3. 

Since what appears in the text, relative to reasoning by 
analogy from the qualities of those animals commonly called 
Brutes, to those under the denomination of Man, was writ- 
ten, the author has accidentally met with some extracts 
from a pamphlet or book, lately published (in 1816) at Cape 
Henry, St. Domingo, entitled " Reflexions sur une Lettre de 
Mazeres, Ex-Colon Francais, addressee a M. Sismonde de 
Sismondi, sur les Noirs et les Blancs, la Civilization de 
l'Afrique, le Royaume d'Hayti, &c. — Par le Baron de Vas- 
tey." This negro-nobleman writes with much passion and 
feeling, as might be expected indeed from the nature of his 
subject, but shows great deficiency in the powers of reason- 
ing and judgment. He has assailed his natural enemy, the 
white ex-colonist, with great fury, in the following passage : 

" Je decouvre tant d'absurdites, de mechancetes et objec- 
tions dans l'ecrit de Mazeres, que je suis vingt fois tente de 
jeter la plume, et d'abandonner son fatras au profonu me- 
pris qu'il m'inspire. Je me sens humilie, je suis homme, je 
le sens dans toute mon etre, je possede des facultes, j'ai la 
pensee, la raison, la force, j'ai tout ie sentiment de ma sub- 
lime existence, et je me vois oblige de refuter des puerili- 
tes d'absurdes sophismes, pour prouver a des hommes comme 
moi, que je suis lcur semblable ? Mon ame indignee de cet 
exces de deraison et de mechancete, me force de douter a 
mon tour, s'ils sont hommes, ceux qui ont ose mettre en dis- 
cussion une question aussi impie, aussi immorale, qu'elle 
est absurde! " Mais," dit Mazeres, u si les castors sont plus 
intelligens que les anes, s'il y a des races de chiens differ- 
entes en intelligences, il doit necessairement y avoir des 
especes d'hommes inferieurs aux autres." Eh comme im- 
becile ! repond J. J. Rousseau, cet argument tire de Pex- 
ample de betes ne conclut point, et n'est pas vrai. L'hom- 
me n'est point un chien ni une ane. Il ne faut qu'etablir 
dans son esprit les premieres rapports de la societe pour 
donner a ses sentimens une moralite toujours inconnue aux 



ncte«. Les animaux ont un cocur, et dcs passions; mais la 
sainte image de Phonnete et da beau, n'entra jamais que 
dans le cceur de I'homme ; e'est done une grand absurd; te 
que de vouloir juger Phomme par analogic avec les betes. 

" Certainment, ll peut y avoir de castors qui ont un peu 
plus d'instinct que d'autres castors ; des anes et des chiens 
qui soient un peu meilleurs les uns que les autres ; il y a 
egalement de beaux homrnes, il y en aussi de contrefaits ; il 
y a des hommcs d'un genie superieur, il y en aussi de sots et 
medians : par example, Mazeres se croit-il Pegal de M. 
de Buifon en talens et en lumieres ? se croit-il un Achiiie 1 
tandis qu'il n'est qu'un Ait rempli d'orgueil et de vanite, 
tache comme Thersite ! Je le repete, que Mazeres se com- 
pare et se juge s'il veut, par analogie, avec les anes et les 
chiens, je ne Pen empeehe pas ; il peut exister entre lui et 
ces quadrupeds quelques analogies : les chiens, par exem- 
ple, ont ete les auxiliaries des ex-colons, qui les ont aide a 
detruire et a devorer les noirs : ils peuvent done tres-bien 
sympathiser ensemble ; mais j£ soutiens que Phomme intelli- 
gent, espece unique, ne peut etre comparee et jugee qu'avec 
Phomme son semblabie, et les animaux avec les individus de 
leur espece." 

The grand mistake in this negro's declamation is, that 
agreeably to the common-place language of uninformed men 
upon the subject, he speaks of man as one distinct species of 
animals — " espece unique," instead of considering, as the 
science of zoology prescribes, — man as a genus, and the dif- 
ferent species thereof according to their various appearances 
of colour, form, and qualities, plainly and distinctly designat- 
ing these different species of the same genus. The authority 
of Rousseau against reasoning by analogy from the brute 
creation, can weigh but little. His notoriety for paradox 
has placed his opinions in no very estimable reputation ; and 
the writer, who endeavoured to prove, as Rousseau did, 
that man in a savage state was a more perfect animal than 
in his civilized state, could surely hold himself as but 
very little superior to the brute, and could not with pro- 
priety take offence at any such comparison. It may also 
be observed, that a comparison of man with other animals 
is not derogatory, but greatly favourable to mankind, and 
exalts them to a very high degree in the scale of animated 
creation. It is a " puerility" in the baron himself, there- 
fore, to say " Phomme n'est point un chien ni une ane." 
f rue ":— -for, if man was a dog or an ass, there could be no 
analogy between them ; they would in all respects be one 



77 



and the same. Analogy is reasoning from similitude, not 
from identity 5 and a well known aphorism teaches us— - 
Nullum simile est idem* 

Note II. p. 22. 
This proportionate number, of one fourteenth, has been 
so stated in the text, with reference to the time when Hero- 
dotus wrote his history, to wit, in the 444th year before the 
Christian sera 5 when we have the first authentic account of 
the discovery of such a race of black men, in the interior 
parts of Africa, as the negroes. It is true, that there is a 
passage in the prophecy of Jeremiah, who wrote about the 
600th year before Christ, which seems to recognise a black 
race of men then existing some where in the world, but in 
what country, it is impossible for those, who do not under- 
stand Hebrew, to determine. This uncertainty arises from 
the variation between the two English translations of the 
Bible, as to this particular passage. In that, which was 
made in the time of queen Elizabeth, the passage, just re- 
ferred to, in the prophecy of Jeremiah, (ch. xiii. v. 23.) is 
thus expressed — " Can the blacke Moore change his skin?" 
But in that made in the time of James I. now in common 
use, it is — " Can the Ethiopian change his skin ?" As the 
Moors, or ancient Mauritanians, and the Ethiopians, are well 
known to have been two distinct nations, one of these trans- 
lations must be wrong — both cannot be right, and therefore 
little stress can be laid upon this passage in Jeremiah, as to 
any knowledge of the negroes in his time. But Herodotus, 
the father of history, is more explicit. There is an inci- 
dent mentioned by him, relative to the negroes, which seems 
to indicate, that until the time of this incident, the negroes 
were a race of people unknown even to the Greeks of Cy- 
renaica in the northern parts of Africa. He states, " that he 
was informed by men of Cyrene, that twelve young men of 
the Nasamenes (a nation" as he states, " of Libyan origin, 
and dwelling on the borders of the Syrtis,) had been chosen 
by lot to undertake a journey of discovery into the desert 
parts of Africa. These young men set out, abundantly pro- 
vided with water and provisions, and, proceeding in a south- 
west direction, continued their journey through the desert. 
After they had, during many days, wandered through an 
extensive sandy region, they met with a race of men com- 
pletely black, who, becoming their guides, conducted them to 
a city, by which flowed a large river, which run in a direc- 
tion from west tozowds the rising of the sim ; and in it. there 



78 



were crocodiles. " We may here observe upon this, that it 
looks like a tolerably exact description of the Joliba of the 
unfortunate Mungo Parke, and that the city here referred 
to in Herodotus, was most probably either that of Tombuc- 
too or Haoussa. (See Herodotus, B. ii. ch. 32, 33.) But, 
supposing this passage in Herodotus to have been the first 
clear proof on record of the existence of a race of men com- 
pletely black, and that the operation of climate is gradual, 
we can assume the period of time between Noah's deluge 
and the time of Herodotus, about 2&50 years, as a period 
sufficiently long to turn a race of men completely black. 
The settlement of negroes in the United States having been 
about 180 years, it will be found, that they ought to have 
faded from their original blackness about one fourteenth 
part. If, however, we understand the prophet Jeremiah 
also, as alluding to a race of people completely black, the 
period of time necessary to convert white men into black is 
somewhat lessened, and it will be found, that the American 
negroes ought to have now lost one thirteenth part of their 
blackness. 

Note III. p. 39. 
For the sake of illiterate religionists, who are commonly 
most clamorous on this subject in the United States, it may 
not be improper to state, that the writer, who was thus an 
advocate for slavery, as referred to in the text, contended, 
that the leave given to the Israelites to make bond-men, 
(who were slaves for life,) expressed in the passages of the 
Old-Testament, which be quotes, (viz. Levit. xxv. 44, 45, 
46, and Joshua, ix. 27,) was not a part of the ceremonial 
law prescribed to the Jews merely, but was inculcated as a 
moral and political usage fit to be adopted by all nations ; 
that this moral and political usage, thus allowed to all na- 
tions, was not revoked by the New-Testament $ but, on the 
contrary, as far as the approbation of one of the most intel- 
ligent and enlightened of the aposttles, (St. Paul,) could 
sanction it, was an usage perfectly consistent with that divine 
system of religion, which this apostle was then labouring to 
establish. In support of this the writer quotes the words of 
1 Corinth, vii. 21, 22. " Art thou called, being a servant? 
Care not for it; but if thou may est be made free, use it rather." 
To this quotation I would add, 1 Corinth, xii. 13 ; Ephes. 
vi. 8; Coloss. iii. 11. It will be observed by those who 
will consult these texts in the original Greek, that the word 
douloi, in all these passages, is that which has been rendered 



79 



5C servants" in tbe English translations. But, it is certain, 
that the word douloi is used by all the profane Greek authors 
as conveying precisely the same idea as the word slaves in 
English, and not that of " hired servants," who were called 
pelata. Sometimes also the word oihetos occurs ; as in Luke, 
xvi. 14 ; 1 Peter, ii. 18 ; and at the end of the Epistle to 
Philemon ; which is synonymous to our English word do- 
mestic ; but it is obvious, that the word domestic, as well as 
that of servants, being the more general term, would com- 
prehend slaves as well as hired servants ; every slave being 
a servant, though every servant, or domestic, was not a slave ; 
and this may have been the reason, why the English transla- 
tors used the word servants instead of slaves, there being 
none of the latter kind of servants in that country. This 
interpretation of the word douloi, seems to be also confined 
by the antithesis in the above citations, " bond and free," 
douloi eite eleutheroi ; and in Galat. iv. 24, 25, the word 
douleia, in the original Greek, is, in our translations, ren- 
dered " bondage ;" a term, that could not properly be applied 
to hired servants. In the foregoing quotation also, from 
1 Corinth, vii. 21, the words " made free" do not seem to be 
applicable to a hired servant, but peculiarly so to a slave. 
Again, in 1 Timoth. vi. 1. " Let as many servants as are 
under the yoke, count their own masters worthy of honour." 

The expression " under the yoke" could not with pro- 
priety apply to hired servants. It may also be observed 
here, that this distinction between hired and bond servants 
had been always well-known among the Jews ; as appears 
from Levit. xxv. 39. 40. Deuter. xv. 18. From all which 
it seems to follow, undeniably, that the word " servants," used 
in the preceding quotations from the JNew Testament, must 
have referred to servants who were slaves for life ; and as 
St. Paul no where speaks with disapprobation of the usage 
of holding slaves for life, he therefore implicitly sanctions 
such usage. 

It must not be omitted, that this writer in Bradford's 
Journal, in proof of his proposition, that the christian reli- 
gion allowed slavery, further observed, that "it was the 
opinion of eminent commentators, that Onesimus, mentioned 
in the epistle to Philemon, was a servant for life ; he, having 
run from his master, was converted by the instrumentality 
of the apostle Paul. This apostle, instead of alleging that 
he ought to be free, grants that his master Philemon had a 
right to him ; sends him home with a letter, wherein he in- 
timates, that Onesimus was now likely to be useful to his 



30 



master c lor ever,' i. e. during life ; both in flesh and in the 
Lord, i. e. both in temporals as a servant, and in spirituals 
as a christian brother." This case of Onesimus deserves 
particular animadversion, inasmuch as it not only sactions sla- 
very, but exhibits a most useful lesson to the Friends of the 
Blacks, who are inhabitants of Pennsylvania and the Dela- 
ware State. These Friends are not content with merely 
being advocates for the emancipation of the negroes in Ma- 
ryland, but shelter and protect them after the) have com- 
mitted enormous crimes and have run away from their mas- 
ters in Maryland. How contrary this to the conduct of St. 
Paul ! Philemon was a citizen of the city of Colosse, in Asia 
Minor, where many christian converts had been made, and 
where Philemon himself was a preacher of the gospel. All 
this country was then a Roman province under the subjuga- 
tion of the emperor Nero, and domestic slavery, as is well- 
known, was allowed throughout the Roman empire. Phile- 
mon had unfortunately this " unprofitable" scoundrel of a 
slave, who had robbed him, (of money, as is supposed,) and 
then run off to Rome ; very much as negro slaves in Mary- 
land, after such conduct, now seek refuge in Philadelphia. 
This Onesimus, finding out Paul, who was then in prison at 
Rome, contrived, perhaps by attending upon him in his con- 
finement, and pretending to be a very zealous christian con- 
vert, to insinuate himself into Paul's good graces. But Paul, 
being a conscientious man, unlike the Friends of the Blacks 
in Pennsylvania, thought it most proper to send Onesimus 
home to his master, and by him sent a letter, addressed to 
both the master and mistress of the slave, in which he re- 
quested them to receive Onesimus again into their favour, and 
endeavoured therein to extenuate his faults, by supposing 
that " perhaps he departed only for a season," and that " he, 
Paul, would repay what the slave had wronged them of." 

Now, it would be highly desirable, if the Friends of the 
Blacks, in Pennsylvania and Delaware, would reflect well 
upon this excellent lesson and example, which St. Paul has 
here set down to them ; and, instead of secreting runaway 
slaves from their masters, act like St. Paul, send them home, 
and thereby cease to encourage disorganization and discon- 
tent among the slaves of a neighbouring State.. There are 
other expressions of St. Paul, which might be recommended 
to these disorganizers ; as in Ephes. vi. 5. " Servants, be 
obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh ;" 
and in the same chapter, of 1 Timoth. before cited, where 
he tells servants, that are " under the yoke," to " count their 



81 

own masters worthy of all honour," he adds a general re- 
mark, addressed to all christians, whether bond or free, "and 
having/bod and raiment, let u? be therewith content." " These 
things," says he, " teach and exhort." But our modern 
extorters teach otherwise. Be not content, they say to the 
slaves, with mere food and raiment; demand your liberty. 
This leads to a quotation from the learned Pufiendorff, (who 
could not with propriety be called an advocate for slavery, 
contending, as he does, for the natural equality of mankind, 
but that by the special contract of individuals and the usage 
of nations in sparing their captives in war on such a condition, 
in process of time slavery for life became lawful,) a quota- 
tion so applicable to our present purpose, that I cannot for- 
bear transcribing it. " Let us," says he, " in the next place, 
examine what inconveniences really attend a state of servi- 
tude, which, in the opinion of most people, passeth for the 
greatest misery incident to mankind, and such, as one ought 
rather to die than endure. The full sum and notion then of 
personal servitude amounts to this ; that a man, for the sake 
of food, and the other necessaries of life, shall lie under an 
obligation to perpetual labour ; which, if taken in its true 
natural extent, extracted from the barbarous cruelty of some 
masters, and the unreasonable rigour of some laws, doth not 
imply any extravagant degree of hardship and cruelty. For 
that perpetual obligation is well requited by a perpetual 
certainty of maintenance, for which those who work by the 
hire, are often at a loss, either through want of business or 
wilful idleness. Some have thought, and not altogether 
without reason, that the prohibition of slavery among chris- 
tians hath chiefly occasioned that flood of thieving vagrants 
and sturdy beggars, which is usually complained of. Though 
there are states, which have, in a great measure, put a stop 
to this nuisance, by erecting public work-houses, and com- 
pelling lazy rascals to a life of honesty and industry." 

Note IV. p. 70. 
Since the composition of what is in the text, a very recent 
publication has appeared in the newspapers, of apparent 
authenticity, purporting to be certain resolutions, entered 
into " at a numerous meeting of the people of colour, con- 
vened at Bethel church, to take into consideration the pro- 
priety of remonstrating against the contemplated measure, 
that it is to exile us from the land of our nativity," dated 
" Philadelphia, January, 1817." This meeting must have 
recurred immediately after the time of the first proposal to 

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82 



form the Society at Washington. Among their resolutions 
on this occasion, there is one that seems to amount to what 
may be called, a flat refusal to accede to any colonization 
whatever ; and is as follows : u Resolved, that we never 
will separate ourselves voluntarily from the slave population 
in this country ; they are our brethren by the ties of consan- 
guinity, of suffering, and of wrongs ; and we feel that there 
is more virtue in suffering privations with them, than fancied 
advantages for a season.'' Pursuant to the purpose of this 
meeting, we find subjoined in the publication of the above- 
mentioned resolutions, a long remonstrance against this mea- 
sure, (agreed to at a subsequent meeting on the tenth of 
August last,) under the. denomination of " an address to the 
humane and benevolent inhabitants of the city and county 
of Philadelphia." After stating therein, that " this plan of 
colonization is not asked for by them," they expressly and 
unequivocally " declare their determination not to partici- 
pate in any part of it." All this might do no harm, could 
we believe that this meeting was composed only of a few 
descendants of the free negro slaves formerly held in bond- 
age by the Quakers of Philadelphia. But as it is well-known 
that two thirds of the black population of Philadelphia are 
at this moment runaway slaves, or the descendants of such 
slaves, from the southern States, we cannot but read the 
subsequent part of their address with some indignation. " If 
this plan of colonization," they say, " is intended to provide 
a refuge and a dwelling for a portion of our brethren, who 
are now held in slavery in the south, we have other and 
stronger obligations to it;" among which " obligations" they 
proceed to state as follows : " To those of our brothers, who 
shall be left behind," (after the transportation or coloniza- 
tion of partj "there will be assured and perpetual slavery and 
augmented sufferings. Diminished in numbers, the slave po- 
pulation of the southern States, which now by its magnitude 
alarms its proprietors, will be easily secured. Those among 
their bond-men, who feel they should be free, by rights which 
all mankind have from God and by nature, and who thus 
may become dangerous to the quiet of their masters, will be 
sent to the colony ; and the tame and submissive will be re 
tamed and subjected to increased rigour. Year after year will 
witness these means to assure safety and submission among 
their slaves, and the southern masters will colonize only 
those whom it may be dangerous to keep among thm. 
The bondage of a large portion of our brothers will thus be 
rendered perpetual. Should the anticipations of misery and 



83 



■want among the colonists, which with great deference we 
have submitted to jour judgment, be realized, to emancipate 
and transport to it, will be heid forth by slave-holders, as 
the worst and heaviest of punishments ; and they will be 
threatened and successfully used to enforce increased sub- 
mission to their wishes, and submission to their commands." 

Now, if these are not manifest indications of an intention 
not merely to encourage and abet,, but to aid and assist the 
southern negroes, " their brethren," in some future revolt 
and insurrection, it is difficult to conjecture, how such ideas 
could be expressed in the English language. Why is there 
so much anxiety to keep up their " numbers," if it be not 
in contemplation of the future exercise of force to obtain 
their " final abolition of slavery ?" A gradual abolition, 
which, as thev say, is " under the guidance and protection 
of a just God," would be pacific ; and would not need " num- 
bers" to accelerate its progress. A part of ».hem might 
peaceably remove to the land of their forefathers, and the 
business of abolition in its present gradual progress might 
still go on, u under the guidance and protection of a just 
God," without their stay to enforce it. Oh! no, they wish 
to keep up the " alarms" of slave-holders ; to make it " dan- 
gerous to the quiet of masters," and to prevent them from 
resorting to " means to assure safety." What can all this 
mean, but the intention of exercising force? Ideas of this 
sort might naturally be expected from runaway slaves ; of 
whom the meeting must have been mostly composed. But 
the misfortune is, that no free or runaway negro of Phila- 
delphia was the draughtsman of this remonstrance. Not one 
of them could be found capable of penning it. It was the 
composition of some vile white incendiary. The Philadel- 
phia Amis des Noirs are now playing the very same barba- 
rous game in regard to the southern States, that the Parisian 
Amis des Noirs were in relation to the colony of St. Domin- 
go. What can they mean ? Would not a servile war in the 
south, if successful on the part of the slaves, infallibly pro* 
duce a dissolution of the Union ? Nay, indeed, whether suc- 
cessful or not, would not the encouragement and assistance 
of the northern States to such insurrection afford abundant 
cause for such a dissolution ? The situation of the southern 
States in such case would not be desperate. They would 
only have to return again to their former condition as Bri- 
tish colonists, and a servile war, though excited and aided 
by the christian pacific Pennsylvanians would soon be sup- 
pressed. 



Davis & Force, Print. 



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AN ESSAY 



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LATE INSTITUTION 



OF THE 



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FOR COLONIZING 



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The Tree People of Colour, 



OF THE 



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UNITED STATES. 



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WASHINGTON : 

FAINTED BV DAVIS AND FORCE, PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE. 



1820. 



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FOR 

WILL BE PUBLISHED IN DECEMBER NEXT. 



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City of Washington, October, 1820. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 





